62 OUR ENGLISH LAND MUDDLE. 



industries, in part due to the flood of cheap 

 competition from abroad, and in part to the 

 Free Trade system, which allowed that com- 

 petition to rage unchecked, it is clear that the 

 remedy is not to be found in some one simple 

 cure-all, but in a careful consideration of the 

 whole position, and the application of a number 

 of remedies. 



The course of treatment might proceed on 

 the presumption that this should be a time of 

 hope for English agriculture. The world posi- 

 tion as regards agricultural products has changed 

 greatly within the past quarter of a century. 

 The empty lands of the world are rapidly being 

 filled up. New nations are getting industrial 

 populations of their own to eat their own food 

 products. They have less space to give to 

 farms. Great areas of their lands, having ex- 

 hausted the first fertility due to having lain 

 fallow for ages, no longer respond with good 

 crops to slight and cheap cultivation. Fer- 

 tilizers have to be used ; the land has to be 

 worked, not tickled with a plough. In conse- 

 quence agricultural products have increased 

 greatly in world price. Probably they will never 



