186 OUR ENGLISH LAND MUDDLE. 



Now if there is a case for any system of Pro- 

 tection at all, it is clearly for the protection of 

 the industries associated with land cultivation, 

 which are the most vital to a nation's welfare, 

 and which are the most difficult to restore if 

 they are once destroyed or reduced in scope. 

 The industries of the land are the most vital, 

 for many obvious reasons. The cultivation of 

 the land is the only permanent and ever-yielding 

 source of national wealth. Mines may become 

 exhausted. Manufactures may pass away with 

 changes of custom and fashion. But crops, 

 presuming wise cultivation, may go on for ever. 

 Further, the cultivation of the land provides 

 the only actual necessities of life. With the 

 products of its farms and fields a nation can 

 at least exist. Loss of trade and of manu- 

 factures may impose poverty ; loss of the 

 products of the land imposes death. 



There is no advantage to be gained, however, 

 in repeating a long series of truisms, the last 

 of which would be that there are certain quali- 

 ties of mind and of body developed in an agri- 

 cultural population which it is wise to have in 

 large proportion for the making of a whole- 



