ProJit-8ha/fing in Agriculture. 
771 
number, the area of land upon which the food can be produced 
is a fixed quantity. It is true that tlie cultivated area goes on 
increasing, and must increase for generations to come ; but we 
have come to a time when the difficulties of opening up new 
countries are much greater than they were twenty years ago. 
The temperate zone is nearly all settled, while the growth of 
common farm products in sub-tropical or semi-arctic regions is 
attended with great risk. Farming will improve, in newly 
settled countries especially, as in them there is the greatest 
scope for improvement ; and, consequently, the production of 
food on a given area will grow greater than it is. But the 
products will be obtained at an increased cost, so that the 
needed increment will be forthcoming only under the impetus 
of enhanced prices. For some time past the cultivators of the 
soil have not had their fair share in the exchange of commodi- 
ties and of the means of enjoying life. Although they have not 
.organised in trade unions, they have " struck " nevertheless in 
the most effective manner, by reducing the output of food with 
which the world was glutted, and, in some countries, espe- 
cially in America and our colonies, by flocking into the towns. 
The result, I believe, will be a return of agricultural prosperity, 
which will last as a rule, let us hope — though we cannot expect 
it to be constant — at least as long as the one among us who 
yfill live longest will be in the world to see it. 
William E, Bear, 
■■ PROFIT-SHARING IN AGRICULTURE. 
The subject of profit-sharing in agriculture has of late received 
a considerable amount of public attention, and it is a noteworthy 
fact that the Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the 
H ouse of Commons have, within the last month, on two suc- 
cessive days, given expression to their common conviction that 
the system offers a better hope of strengthening the relations 
between employer and employed, of remedying agricultural dis- 
content, and of bringing about a moral and material improve- 
ment in the individual circumstances of those engaged in the 
production of wealth, than any other principle which has been 
before the public. When statesmen of both political parties 
speak of " profit-sharing " in terms so appreciative as those used 
by Mr. Gladstone at Wirral on November 28, and by Mr. 
Balfour at Huddersfield on November 30, the principle becomes 
