27 



Again, in the eight-acre test it is shown that the judicial rent 

 fixed in 1850 is not affected in the calculation per cent, under the 

 changes in circumstances, thus exonerating the landowner from an 

 abatement in rent, as the calculation alluded to is shown to yield a 

 profit of ] per cent, on the cost of producing cheap food for the popu- 

 lation of this country. Although the production of cereals and meat 

 products is thus declared to be manifestly profitable, it remains to be 

 shown how the necessary capital (£14 9s. 5£d.) per acre (more or less) 

 is to be acquired, as the average real farming capital of the kingdom 

 cannot be estimated at one-third of the amount suggested. 



The alternative seems to be a complete alteration in the Land 

 Laws, as the consequence of the changed times, so as to allow the 

 landowners to virtually mortgage their estates, by giving security to 

 the tenant-occupier for acquiring the means to farm profitably before 

 his normal farming capital is completely exhausted. 



As matters stand at present, the landowner's estate is robbed of its 

 virgin fertility by the application of chemicals and other deteriorators, 

 which exhaust the soil through not being supported by permanent 

 fertilisers, and while the sewage of our towns and populous districts is 

 flowing towards the sea instead of being used upon the land. More- 

 over, the tenant-occupiers' remaining normal capital is frittered away by 

 an unfair scale of taxation, while suffering from foreign competition in 

 the production of food for the population of the country, and while the 

 fund holder is exempt from taxation to which he was not liable while 

 the land reaped the advantages of Protection. 



N.B. — It will be observed that the foregoing diagram (Folio 25) 

 amounts to a definition of High and Low Farming, and consequently it 

 follows that one moiety of the cultivation of the country is conducted 

 profitably notwithstanding low prices, and the other moiety is depreciated 

 to ruinous consequences requiring immediate attention to the adjustment 

 of the Land Laws and of the Taxation of the country. 



