4 PEEMANENT AND TEMPOEAEY PASTUEES. 



into enormous deer forests which are bringing handsome sporting 

 rentals. They tell us that the creation of pastures is bad for the 

 nation, because the land does not produce so good a return in 

 grass as it would under arable, and still more under spade culti- 

 vation, and also because there is less scope for the employment 

 of labour on grass land than on arable. 



Unfortunately, the question which agriculturists have to 

 face is not which system will produce most food and employ most 

 labourers, but by which can land be farmed at a profit. Surely 

 no one can be expected to till the soil at a ruinous loss, unless the 

 nation, which is supposed to benefit by it, is prepared to refund 

 the loss out of the public purse. Until it is considered reasonable 

 that men should beggar themselves for the national good, those 

 who are at the time responsible for the land must be left free 

 to cultivate it in the way that is most likely to yield some return 

 for the capital and skill devoted to the business. 



I do not suggest that an extension of pastures in every part 

 of the country will confer the highest social or economic benefits 

 upon England, but it will certainly help to save many farmers 

 from conducting their vocation at a loss, enable them to manage 

 their holdings with a reduced capital, and cut down a labour 

 bill that is now too heavy for their means. Farming may never 

 again be a very lucrative business ; but if grass largely takes the 

 place of corn, and the land be freed from some of the charges 

 upon it, the present crisis may be surmounted. 



The laying down of land to grass appears to me to be quite 

 as much a question for landowners as for tenants. The former 

 have a direct interest in promoting the movement, as a means of 

 avoiding the deterioration of their land, and of attracting tenants 

 to their farms. 



I quite admit that there are large tracts of land in this 

 country which are unsuited for the formation of permanent pas- 

 tures, because the finer grasses die out, and the soil gradually 

 becomes filled with worthless varieties which are indigenous to it. 

 Much of the prejudice existing against the making of pastures has 



