Land Laws no Cure for Agricultural Difficulties. 13 



and yet what have the farmers in La Manche, in Nor- 

 mandy, 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 con- 

 sumption 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 in- 

 jurious, and we had neither the Agricultural Holdings 

 Act nor the Hares and Eabbits Act. These were 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-metallism. Pro- 

 tection, and land legislation as cures for our agricultural 

 diflaculties 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 concentrated on 

 the practical remedies within our reach, and which can 

 be inunediately 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 recommended by me will be 

 equally advisable ; for if com 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 pa^es ; and should com 

 growing for sale again become profitable, then the land 

 laid down to temporary pasture, on a system of not 

 less than four years in grass, may have the system 

 shortened to three years, or even to two, and both 



