74 AGRICULTURAL DEPRESSION 



and that this eagerness of the outsider to come in and 

 reap the advantages of good farming, is the greatest 

 peril of the good farmer at the present day, and actually 

 leads to the absorption of his possible margin of profit, 

 either by enhanced rent, or by the refusal of a moderate 

 and reasonable reduction in consideration of depression 

 of prices. 



Another fact which shows that farmers have 

 been alive to the benefit of high farming is that the 

 prices of cakes and manures have considerably fallen, 

 and yet we have in a large proportion of farming 

 accounts handed in, undeniable proof that the money 

 outlay in this direction is, if anything, increasing, and, 

 therefore, the quantities must be still more increasing. 

 Further, economy has been effected by the more careful 

 analysis and selection of feeding stuffs and manures. 



It is most satisfactory to note that a considerable 

 protection and pecuniary advantage has been conferred 

 by Parliament on agriculturists by the passing of the 

 Fertilisers and Feeding Stuffs Act in 1893. That Act, 

 where effectively administered, has been of the greatest 

 service. 



What Items must be Cut Down. 



Whether this tendency to maintain and to con- 

 centrate outlay on adequate working, and adequate 

 fertilising of the land is viewed in the interest of the 

 production of food, or the provision of employment, we 

 are bound to consider it as a sound economic instinct, 

 and, in fact, the only rational method of readjusting the 

 outgoings of farming to present returns which is con- 

 sistent with the permanent interests of agriculture. 

 Even supposing that the large proportion of money 

 returned from rents to the land, in the shape of drainage, 

 buildings, and other improvements, and in repairs, which 

 we have noted on certain large and liberally-managed 

 estates, were more general than it appears to be, it is 

 plainly necessary that rent should be subordinated, as an 



