CHAPTER II. 



GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 



IN the treatment of almost any subject it is hardly 

 0eces8ary to say that there is generally some 

 leading point, or principle, which mainly governs it, 

 and which should be constantly kept before the 

 attention. As regards rehgion, for instance, Confucius 

 was once asked whether it might all be condensed 

 into one word. "Certainly," he replied; "is not 

 reciprocity such a word? What you do not want 

 done to yourself do not do to others." And so, to 

 take another instance, the whole of the agricultural 

 competition we mainly suffer from may be condensed 

 into one expression — the cost of heat, for those who 

 compete most successfully with us are enabled to do 

 so because they obtain gratis from the sun a large 

 supply of what we have to pay very highly for in 

 the shape of clothing, lodging, and fuel ; and it is 

 hardly necessary to point out that in India and mild 

 climates, like the best of Argentina, the labourers' 

 expenses are necessarily far less than those of our 

 islands. To turn to the point with which we are 

 more immediately concerned, it may be said that the 

 solution of all our agricultural difficulties, so far as 

 they can be solved by the wit of man, resolves itself 

 into one expression — the cheap production of a good 

 turf. That is the principle which, as I shall show, 

 dominates the whole subject, and that it does so is 

 evident if we consider carefully the following points : — 

 I. The success of our agriculture depends on the 

 cheapening of production. 



