'TALPA' LOQUITUR. 161 



* That's just it : that's just what it is, sure/y.' 



* And the higher the price Wheat is kept at, the 

 better it pays, the greater the premium, in fact, 

 on that kind of * farming,' the higher the sham- 

 rents offered over the head of the fair tenant, the 

 smaller the inducement to steady and fair cultivation, 

 the greater the breadth of Wheat unfairly grown, 

 the greater the consequent glut upon the corn- 

 market, and the injury done to the honest grower 

 who has earned one large grain crop by growing 

 roots and feeding plenty of stock, instead of raking 

 the land by frequent and diminishing crops with no 

 stock at all. Is that to your liking ? Will 'you 

 pray that the inducement may continue of that style 

 of farming? of that style of competition"? of that 

 style of rent-raising, that ends in ruin to the 

 beggared land, the .ignorant landlord, the foolish 

 tenant, and the defrauded labourer ? ' 



Mr. Greening looked thoughtful, ' Well - 

 there's something in that, perhaps ; but how's it to 

 be stopped ? How's them sort o' farmers to be put 

 an end to ? ' 



Now it was the other's turn to be a lion. So the 

 savage beast sat right opposite to poor Greening, and 

 glaring fiercely in his face growled out ' Now 



M 



