96 THE POSSIBILITIES 



under hunting grounds established upon what 

 formerly was arable land for the amusement of 

 the rich increases at an appalling rate. No 

 need to say that at the same time the Scotch 

 population is emigrating, and Scotland is de- 

 populated at an appalling speed. 



My chief purpose being to show here what can 

 and ought to be obtained from the land under a 

 proper and intelligent treatment, I shall only 

 indicate one of the disadvantages of the systems 

 of husbandry in vogue in this country. Both 

 landlords and farmers gradually came of late 

 to pursue other aims than that of obtaining 

 from the land the greatest amount of produce 

 than can be obtained ; and when this problem 

 of a maximum productivity of the land arose 

 before the European nations, and therefore a 

 complete modification of the methods of hus- 

 bandry was rendered imperative, such a modifi- 

 cation was not accomplished in this country. 

 While in France, Belgium, Germany and Den- 

 mark the agriculturists did their best to meet 

 the effects of American competition by render- 

 ing their culture more intensive in all directions, 

 in this country the already antiquated method 

 of reducing the area under corn crops and lay- 

 ing land for grass continues to prevail, although 

 it ought to be evident that mere grazing will 

 pay no more, and that some effort in the right 



