20 
Agricultural Progress and 
Seeing then that steam has ensconced itself in our homesteads, 
and after ejecting most of their previous occupants, is now waging 
war with their most ancient denizens, the ploughs and the harrows 
ol " long, long ago," it is surely not premature to inquire the why 
and the wherefore of this great disturbance. No common motive 
can have induced men of solid character and fixed habits 
suddenly to buy hundreds and thousands of ' costly machines, 
whose construction they don't understand, and whose adoption 
forces them to change many of their former plans, and renders 
useless much of their former expenditure. The answer is at 
hand. One moving cause, and only one, is powerful enough for 
the purpose, and that cause is competition. The British corn- 
grower is competing with the corn-growers of all nations, and 
this competition is continually increasing in intensity. The whole 
world is, in fact, running a race to secure the best market for 
their surplus productions ; and the repute of our wealth and the 
universality of our commerce are year by year turning the current 
more and more towards our shores. The cost of transport to the 
place of shipment, added to freight and 'port-dues, once formed 
a fair set-oft against the cheapness of land and the superiority of 
climate enjoyed by the foreign corn-grower ; but the construc- 
tion of railways abroad and the substitution of steamers for 
sailing vessels are continually diminishing this margin, and the 
conditions of the problem which presents itself to the British 
corn-grower are these : 
The increased area from which supplies are now drawn to the 
British market, and the diminished cost of transport, have so 
lowered the average price of grain as to make it necessary for 
the English farmer to reduce his outgoings, in order still to 
grow corn with profit. These outgoings principally consist of 
three classes of payments : rent, wages, and farming expenses. 
Has he any prospect of a reduction of rent ? Is it not notorious 
that the competition for farms is such that the constant tendency 
is towards a rise rather than a fall in rents ? Can wages 
be lowered ? Is it not equally notorious that wages have in- 
creased considerably in the last ten years, and that they also 
have a tendency still to rise ? The only available expedient, 
then, appears to be, to reduce the cost of cultivation; and this 
quarter appears the more hopeful when it is borne in mind that 
there are two great advantages available in this country of which 
until of late the farmer has made little use, viz., the superiority 
of British machinery and the abundance of British capital. These 
have been freely drawn upon by his rivals for the construction 
of foreign railways, and for the improvement of both British 
and foreign shipping ; but on the other hand, the implement- 
makers, the joint-stock banks, and the loan-societies have come 
