304 = 55 
British Agriculture. 
The result of 
the system 
compared with 
that of other 
countries 
shows larger 
returns at less 
cost. 
Special 
features pre- 
sented by it 
in each of 
the three 
countries ; ii 
England, 
in Scotland, 
where liberty, order, and remunerative employment are offered 
to all comers ; where the climate is pure and healthy for Euro- 
peans, and where every industry, agricultural, manufacturing, or 
mining, affords a field for enterprise. 
A system is best tested by its fruits. Compared with all 
other countries, our threefold plan of landlord, farmer, and 
labourer, appears to yield larger returns, with fewer labourers, 
and from an equal extent of land. Our average produce of 
wheat is 28 bushels an acre, as against 16 in France, 16 in Ger- 
many, and 13 in Russia and the United States. We show a 
similar advantage in live-stock, both in quantity and quality. 
We have far more horses, cattle, and sheep in proportion to 
acreage than any other country, and in all these kinds there is 
a general superiority. Our most famous breeders of live-stock 
are the tenant-farmers. The best examples of farming are found 
in the same class. The improved breeds of cattle, the Leicester 
and Southdown sheep, and the extended use of machinery, 
manures, and artificial foods are chiefly due to them. And 
the neatness of the cultivation, the straight furrow, and the 
beautiful lines of drilled corn, the well-built ricks and docile 
horses, exhibit at once the strength and skill of the labourers. 
If that mode of husbandry which lessens the exchangeable 
value of bread and meat by an increase of production and 
supply, is the best for the community, Irom whom a smaller 
proportion of their labour is required for the purchase of their 
food, then our system of subdivision of labour by landowner, 
farmer, and labourer, the three interests engaged in its produc- 
tion, will stand a favourable comparison with that of any other 
country. 
There are characteristic features in the business relation 
between the landowner and farmer which deserve notice, ir 
its application to the three countries, England, Scotland, am 
Ireland. In England the general system is tenancy at will 
by which the connection may be terminated on six months 
notice. The result is, that the notice is rarely given, changes c 
tenancy are comparatively few, and systems of management ar 
slowly altered. In Scotland there has long been tenancy on . 
nineteen years' lease. The certainty of the tenure up to a fixe 
time prompts immediate enterprise to make the most of th; 
definite period, and changes of tenant at its conclusion hav »> 
become frequent. There can be no doubt that this has be( 
attended with a more hearty and ready appreciation of iinprovi 
processes on the part of both landlord and tenant, and a high 
scale of wages to the labourer. It still needs, however, some equ 
able rules to secure continuance of the tenant's interest in gi 
farming to the close of the lease. And the Scotch tenants i 
