488 On the Advantage of converting Cold Clay Arable Land 
continue in operation. It is therefore important for those 
Avho have to deal with such land carefully to consider their 
position, and, if possible, to alter their system of farming so as 
to avoid loss. 
An elaborate system of book-keeping is scarcely applicable to 
practical farming, but if occupiers would pay more attention to 
the details of the actual cost of cultivation, and the actual value 
of the crops from separate fields in arable culture, they would in 
many cases find that a heavy yearly loss results from the culti- 
vation of certain fields. The conversion of all such fields into 
permanent pasture, in which condition only a small annual 
outlay in labour is required, is therefore desirable. 
Mr. Caird, in his admirable article upon British Agriculture, 
in the ' Royal Agricultural Society's Journal,' vol. xiv. part 2, 
1878, states with truth, that "a rich loam which yields a ton of 
wheat to the acre is less costly in labour than poor clay which 
yields little more than half that weight." As the rich loam also 
requires a smaller outlay in manures, and in the growth of 
root crops, the disproportion between the cost of production 
and the annual value of the produce on the poor strong land 
is still greater. It is therefore perfectly obvious that whilst 
rich and easily worked arable land may pay a good rent, and 
give a fair profit to the occupier, poor clay may, at the same 
time, even if well farmed and rent free, be farmed as arable 
at an annual loss. The Right Honourable the Speaker 
of the House of Commons recently spoke pointedly on this 
subject. On the farm in his own occupation, of 670 acres, 
there are some 60 acres of strong land under tillage. Con- 
cerning this, portion of his farm he said, " My profits for 
the last five or six years have been very much affected by 
the small returns from these 60 acres of heavy land. I find 
that three out of four of the seasons are of such a character 
that the returns from that land are very small ; therefore I pro- 
pose at once to lay down all that land in pasture. As I shall 
look forward to raise much more meat and less corn, I think the 
result must be of a profitable character." 
If this experience be correct as regards the comparatively dry 
climate of the county in which his farm is situated, it applies 
with much greater force in the damper districts of England. 
Mr. James Howard, whose trade interests would certainly 
not lead him to regard with special favour the extensive con- 
version of arable into pasture, in a recent letter to the ' Times,' 
on the depression in agriculture, remarks, " With the low prices 
for grain which may be expected to rule in the future, not a few 
landowners would do well to arrange with their tenants to bear 
a part of the expense of sowing down in grass a certain portion 
