194 OUR ENGLISH LAND MUDDLE. 



profits vanish. If he shuts down and allows 

 his land to become derelict, as so many did 

 during the last crisis, it is not possible to restore 

 it to work again by turning a key, getting up 

 steam, and calling for hands. His machine of 

 production is the most difficult of all to restart. 



From the producer's point of view, then, I 

 hold that some system of agricultural protec- 

 tion is necessary not only to assist a new genera- 

 tion of farmers to come back to the soil, but 

 to steady the market for the existing farmer. 

 A sound system would begin cautiously with 

 protection for a few food staples, and would be 

 safeguarded by ample provision for the sus- 

 pension or abolition of any duty that was 

 proving oppressive. To cite a particular instance 

 (the figures are purely arbitrary) : Supposing 

 that 35s. a quarter is agreed upon as a fair 

 remunerative price for English-grown wheat, at 

 which Great Britain could double its present 

 wheat acreage, a sensible tariff would impose a 

 sliding- scale duty on all imported wheat sufficient 

 to bring the c.i.f.e., duty-paid price up to 35s. 

 That price, I repeat, is purely arbitrary. It is 

 not at all my purpose to attempt to frame here 



