230 FACTORIES AND FARMING 



keep the corn standing ; we have seen one wheat crop 

 of over sixty bushels to the acre only very slightly laid 

 in places, whereas on the same soil in an ordinary 

 season anything over forty bushels might be expected 

 to go down. The prevalence of names like " stiff 

 straw," " stand up," among cereal varieties grown in 

 Britain show what an all-important factor the straw 

 is here ; names of the same type are not found 

 among the varieties grown in countries like America, 

 where the acreages are large but the average yields 

 low. 



On this land near Manchester the rents were about 

 403. per acre, and that for farms with no great equip- 

 ment of buildings, of which, indeed, few are wanted 

 where stock are not kept. Wages naturally were 

 high 22s. to 245. per week, but no particular diffi- 

 culty was found in obtaining or keeping good men. 

 There was a growing scarcity, however, of casual 

 labour for potato digging, hay-making, etc., but that 

 might only be temporary and due to the recent good 

 times in the manufacturing districts close at hand. 

 Our host was giving much attention to the question 

 of how to dispense with such casual labour and make 

 the farm entirely self-contained. The solution must, of 

 course, lie in the greater application of machinery to all 

 farm operations, and he was greatly interested in 

 machines, having himself invented one or two skilful 

 improvements or additions to farm implements. Of 

 course on general social grounds it is desirable to 

 render farming independent of casual labour, just as 

 its ideal should be always to make skill replace numbers 

 in doing any particular operation. Back to the land 

 is a retrograde cry if it is to mean many men doing 

 by hand what a few men can accomplish by machines. 

 The former density of the agricultural population meant 



