THE LAND QUESTION 



FARMING PROFITABLE UP TO 18S3— DISASTROUS IN 1885, 

 BUT REDEEMABLE. 



"THREE ACRES AND A COW" ATTAINABLE. 



To the Editor of the Times. 



SlE, 



My attention has been drawn to an article in your columns of 

 September 14th, 1885, headed "Crop and Stock Prospects." In this 

 article you have made comparisons with the twenty-three years^ experi- 

 ence of the Right Hon. Lord and Lady Herbert, of Lea, in farming the 

 Wilton House Home Farm, belonging to the Earl of Pembroke and 

 Montgomery, the farm in question being an inferior type of the farms 

 in Wilts, Dorset, and Hants. 



The analysis of this farming account is so minute, comprehensive in 

 detail, and to the point, that I, as a looker on in agricultural matters for 

 the last sixty years, cannot find any statistical record extant, which 

 develops the entire results of a farm so minutely and for so long a 

 period as the one which dilates on the land question by Prof. Elliot in 

 his work published by Cassell and Co., in 1884, entitled "The Land 

 Question ; its Examination and Solution.-'^ I therefore adopt the 

 products realised therein, together with its actual expenditure, as a 

 foundation for my observations. And as they illustrate a success in 

 farming, I think it a public duty that they should be made known and 

 thoroughly understood at the present time. 



The writer of the article " Crop and Stock Prospects," in my 

 opinion has misunderstood the bearing of this matter, and thereby has 

 mutilated the meaning of the account, which confines itself to the farm 

 in question. In showing to landlords, tenants, and agricultural 

 labourers, as well as consumers, their relative positions, it seems necessary 

 for me to recapitulate the facts of Prof. Elliotts published work. These 

 clearly indicate that farming has been, and may be a profitable business 



