ENGLISH LAND CULTIVATION. 53 



some 200,000 acres). Yet the farmer in 

 Australia, paying up to £40 an acre for 

 good land, can live and flourish with his 

 infinitely smaller local market. What is 

 the explanation of the mystery ? 



" There is now in England an anxious 

 groping for a way out of the present posi- 

 tion. Almost every one admits that the 

 agricultural repopulation of the land must 

 be attempted. It is the method of remedy 

 that is doubtful. Many of those from 

 whom a patriotic lead can be most reason- 

 ably expected are hampered to a great 

 extent by an unhappy tradition, that has 

 grown up within the Free Trade era, that 

 the land is an instrument of luxury rather 

 than of national use. They are more ready 

 to lose on the land the earnings of other 

 enterprises than to recognize the stern 

 necessity of bringing land to its proper 

 place in the national economy." 

 That impression was in some respects too 

 pessimistic, because of my ignorance then of 

 certain local conditions — the profits of grass 

 lands (apparently uncultivated, but actually 



