TEMPOEAEY PASTUEES. 133 



tion to other crops besides wheat, and discontinue flogging the 

 dead horse. The oft-repeated statement that our land is only fit 

 for wheat-growing is erroneous and results in a practice that is 

 economically false. As an alternative, I am fully persuaded that 

 the general adoption of short term leys will prove to be a 

 substantial gain. In itself the system of temporary pastures 

 is good, and a means of good, for it opens up a less ruinous 

 method of farming with a much smaller capital than is sufficient 

 for the conduct of a purely arable farm. It has been said with 

 truth that the immediate return from grass is less than from 

 arable land ; and while farmers were paying high rents they 

 could not afford to dispense with a crop like wheat, which 

 could readily be turned into money. This argument takes no 

 account of the continued outlay a wheat crop involves, and 

 which more than absorbs the price the corn fetches. But 

 rents are no longer what they were, even if they ever afforded 

 an excuse for losing the advantage to be derived from temporary 

 pastures. 



My late esteemed friend, John Chalmers Morton, published 

 remarks on this subject which are still worthy of attention. 

 He said : — 



' It is honestly believed by many that great loss has come, 

 both to landlords and tenants in England, because they have per- 

 sistently continued to cherish good hopes of a wheat harvest as 

 year succeeded year. 



' Let us be sure that it is an economical sin to carry on a 

 trade year after year at a loss. We are turning a deaf ear to the 

 teachings of Providence, oft repeated, as long as we continue to 

 attempt to grow wheat on cold and worn-out arable land. It is 

 our old turf that has kept the agriculture of England going for 

 many years past. Much encouragement is held out for a great 

 development in dairy farming and stock production. But mean- 

 while many of those who actually make a profit in the items of 

 milk and stock throw that profit away. Metaphorically, the 

 mixed farms of our midlands are now pouring their milk down 



