12 Land Legislation no Cure for Agricultural Dijtculties. 



is Protection, which gives the agriculturist there 8s 2d 

 more per quarter, and yet what have the farmers in 

 La Manche, in Normandy, done ^ As we have seen, 

 they have given up the growth of cereals for sale in 

 favour of permanent pasture, and now only produce 

 enough grain for consumption on the farm. Then, as 

 to the third point — land legislation — we have only to 

 turn back to the most prosperous times, to the time 

 when farmers laid out most capital on the land, to 

 see how little the laws can affect the farmer; for in 

 these good days we had the laws of hypothec, which 

 were always said to be so injurious, and we had neither 

 the Agricultural Holdings Act nor the Hares and 

 Rabbits Act. These weie the days of high rents, too, 

 and yet one of the largest scale cultivators in the 

 south of Scotland once said to me, "I could make 

 money in those days, but I cannot do so now." Nor, 

 with the present system of farming, could he do so 

 with the aid of all the laws that human folly could 

 devise. Those, then, who hold up bi-metalhsm. Protec- 

 tion, and land legislation as cures for our agricultural 

 difficulties have little idea of the harm they are doing 

 in dangling false hopes before the eyes of the farmer, 

 and so retarding the adoption of the only practical 

 remedies for the present agricultural situation. For is 

 it not evident that all our attention should be concen- 

 trated on the practical remedies within our reach, and 

 which can be immediately applied ? 



Lastly, in this connection, it should be considered 

 that, whether the remedies held out by bi-metallists, 

 Protectionists, or the legislative cure-mongers come to 

 pass or not, the steps I'ecommended by me will be 

 equally advisable ; for if corn growing should never 

 again become profitable, there can be no doubt of the 

 good that will arise from the adoption of the farming 

 system recommended in these pages; and should corn 

 growing for sale again become profitable, then the land 

 laid down to temporary pasture, on a system of not 



