2 Reviodelling our Agricultural System. 



me that a thorough reorganization of our farming system 

 was necessary in order to bring it into line with the 

 altered conditions caused by foreign competition, and 

 the rapidly-increasing transport facilities which were 

 sure to bring the produce of the world more and more 

 cheaply to our doors. To myself, then, and to others 

 who had equal opportunities of making sound forecasts, 

 it was evident that a system of cultivation depending 

 largely on cereals would have to give way to one mainly 

 depending on the cultivation of grass and forage plants, 

 and also on cheapening the cost of production all along 

 the line, for it was evident that if other countries could 

 produce so much more cheaply than we can we must 

 produce more cheaply than we do now or go to the 

 wall. It was extremely easy to conceive these ideas, 

 and I accordingly at once proceeded to attempt to put 

 them into execution ; but I was not long in discovering 

 that I had got hold of a very difficult and complicated 

 subject, and so much so, indeed, that it is only now, 

 after more than thirty years' practical experience on 

 a large scale, and after numerous experiments qn all 

 kinds of soil, and at many different elevations, that 

 I feel myself able to offer to the agricultural world 

 experiences and conclusions that will, I venture to think,' 

 be of use in the work of remodelling our own agricultural 

 system so as to bring it into harmony with the existing 

 state of things throughout the world. But though I 

 have no doubt that my experiences will be of value, I 

 need hardly say that, before adopting any of the changes 

 to be advocated in these pages, the agriculturist must 

 weigh carefully the whole of his own local conditions, 

 and see that, if he adopts any of my conclusions, he 

 parries them out down to the minutest particulars. For 

 laying down land to grass, and more especially the 

 subsequent management of the pasture, requires great 

 skill and attention, and what to an agriculturist who is 

 inexperienced in laying down land to grass may seem a^ 

 trifling matter is, if neglected, often the cause of an en- 



