68 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



only be in exceptional circumstances and positions that 

 corn growing can be persisted in, except at much longer 

 intervals of seasons, or so far as it may be an indispens- 

 able adjunct of stock farming. 



In the face of such testimony from all districts, the 

 four-course system, so long the mainstay of English arable 

 farming is, naturally, condemned in the letter of Lord 

 Leicester to Mr Shaw Lefevre when Chairman, and by 

 many witnesses who have come before us.^ 



If the estimates of the cost of the four-course system 

 and of the returns from roots and seeds are approximately 

 correct, to make ends meet a return from the two corn 

 crops is demanded, which is impossible at present prices. 

 For instance, in two careful estimates the cost of the four 

 years is put at £\(^ i6s 6d, and £\<^ 115s, and the value 

 of roots and seeds at £6 in one case, and £'i^ 15s in the 

 other. In the former case wheat and barley have to make 

 up ;^I3 1 6s 6d, in the latter ^16 per acre, between them, 

 an insoluble problem at the prices of the last few years. 



The only chance of economic recovery lies in the 

 direction of reducing expenses by throwing land into 

 grass, and occasionally breaking up. Lord Leicester is 

 able to reduce his horses from thirty-four to eighteen, and 

 the labourers employed on his home farm from twenty-two 

 to twelve. He also finds the land so full of nitrogen after 

 temporary pastures that two corn and two root crops may 

 be taken without manuring.^ 



The Cost of Labour. 



The most important element in the cost of pro- 



\ duction economically, as u^ell as socially, is the cost of 



I labour. Sir Robert Giffen has shown that in the pro- 



\ gressive changes of values during the past twenty years, 



the wages of labour have been fairly maintained, while 



the general fall in the prices of all the articles consumed 



by the workers represents a real improvement in the 



condition of labour. Taking the two facts together, 



' Vol. IV, App. D. 2 Wilson Fox, Suffolk, § 81, p. 62. 



