262 
The Survival in Farminr/. 
crop with a liberal allowance of fertilisers, except for the 
difference in the cost of the manure. The other expenses of 
farming are but slightly affected. A good crop costs less to 
keep clean than a poor one, but more to harvest and dis- 
pose of. 
The question becomes more complicated when we have to 
consider high farming consisting in the keeping and liberal 
feeding of a large number of live stock in propoi'tion to acreage. 
Here a great deal depends upon the judgment and business 
capability of the farmer as buyer and seller, upon the question 
whether the stock are bred and reared at home or bought 
in as stores to be fattened, upon the class of land upon which 
the animals are kept, upon skill in feeding, and upon other con- 
siderations. To simplify the question, poor grazing land, only 
fit for the breeding and partial rearing of stock, such as the 
hill districts of Wales and Ireland, may be left out of account. 
The small area of very rich pasture in the country may also be 
set aside, with the remark that if it is well stocked with 
fattening animals it cannot be badly farmed. Wholly arable, 
or mixed arable and grass farms lend themselves best to the 
discussion now before us. 
Unfortunately there is a " plentiful lack " of exact records 
of the cost of keeping stock, or — and this is of more importance 
to the question at issue — of the cost of the manure which they 
leave upon the farm. There is, I believe, a general concui'rence 
of evidence to the effect that the most remunerative method of 
fattening stock reared on the farm is that of keeping them 
" doing "' from the first, and selling them at an early age. 
Where this system is pursued, with a sufficient number of 
animals, it is necessarily high farming, as cake or corn is con- 
stantly being consumed. At various times 1 have heard or rea^ of 
many instances in which stock so reared left so goodly a sum for 
their keep that the cost of the manure they made must have 
been very little. Indeed, I have heard of instances in which 
cattle were said to have paid well for everything they had eaten, 
though I have never seen a properly-kept account proving this, 
except in relation to breedhig or dairy cows. With sheep and 
lambs, however, such good fortune is not very uncommon when 
the markets turn in favour of sellers, and this remark applies to 
fattening as well as to breeding. Now, tlie low farmer would 
keep fewer stock in pi'oportion to his acreage tlian the high 
farmer, and, as a rnle, an inferior description of stock, while he 
would not allow them much purchased food or home-grown 
corn. As a bi'eedcr, the low fai-mer has been simply " no- 
where " in n^cent times, as he lias not invested capital enough 
