12 



The entire- aspect of the six foregoing diagrams evidences their 

 paradoxical characters ; and to those persons who have not given their 

 issues due consideration, they may be said (when comparatively viewed) 

 to form an agricultural " chess-board/' the game having been played 

 out, without the production of the crops, by the producer being check- 

 mated. For instance : A shows that a profit of £19 17s. Ofd. per cent. 

 on an ample capital employed might have been obtained through high 

 cultivation, at Protection prices, though the next quotations appear so 

 low ; but this result is clearly demonstrated in the third section of 

 Professor Elliot's work. B denotes the lowest prices at which cereals 

 can be profitably produced in this kingdom, the meat products stand- 

 ing at a loss ; the cost of production, which is shown to be greater 

 than the realised sale quotations on the average of 23 years, as well as 

 in the test eight-acre farm. 



This position is evidently the moving pivot of the British farmer, 

 as it enables him to sell profitably, and also to hold and compete with 

 the importation of foreign grain (to the extent of the shipping freight 

 at least), provided he has adopted, in practice, the principle of increased 

 production. 



The results evidenced in D and D I, on the average of 1883-4-5, are 

 remarkable in their contrasts with A and A I, the averages of I860 to 

 1873. For instance: the nett realised price for wheat in D is 4s. 7d. 

 per bushel, or £1 16s. 8d. per quarter; and in A I, 4s. 81/1., or 

 £1 17s. 6d. per quarter ; while the meat products are practically iden- 

 tical, averaging 7|d. and 7|d. per lb. in D and A respectively. 



Moreover, through increased production .the six diagrams evidence 

 profits ; D alone not producing the estimated 5 per cent, for skill in 

 farming and commercial enterprise. The decadence in prices for agri- 

 cultural produce, however, has been great between 1850 and 1885, and 

 will require minute inquiry before the disastrous effects of the last five 

 or six years can be developed. C is a foregone conclusion, inasmuch 

 as the Wilton House Home Farm experiments were abandoned in 1873; 

 though originally intended to be aimed at as the Norfolk standard 

 for the growth of 40 bushels of wheat per acre. The attainment of this 

 object, as shown by the diagram in question, would not only have 

 lessened the cost-price of meat, but would have yielded a profit of 10 

 per cent, on the capital employed in realising the projected products. 



