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 S 455.ES8C2 
 
 British land question. 
 
 3 1924 000 242 234 
 
The original of tliis bool< is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
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 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924000242234 
 
SECOND EDITION.— PRICE SIXPENCE. 
 
 THE 
 
 '^^Hl/V 
 
 British Land Question. 
 
 JAMES CAIRD, C.B., F.R.S., 
 
 President of the Statistical Society. 
 
 Cassell, Petter, Galpin & Co. 
 
 LONDON, PARIS <t NEW YORK. 
 
 1882. 
 
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THE BRITISH LAND QUESTION. 
 
THE 
 
 British Land Question. 
 
 BY 
 
 JAMES CAIRO, C.B., F.R.S., 
 
 President of the Statistical Society. 
 
 gietonl (EUitton. 
 
 Cassell, Fetter, Galpin & Co. 
 
 LONDON, PARIS & NEW YORK. 
 1882. 
 
 [ALL RIGHTS RESERVED,] 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Heavy Losses of Agricultural Capital 
 Growth of American Competition ... 
 
 As Yet Unattended by General Reduction of 
 Price 
 
 Conversion of Arable and Pasture 
 
 "Cost of Transport in Favour of Meat and Pro 
 
 visions as Compared with Corn 
 
 Mixed Husbandry Here Likely to Continue 
 
 Cost of Transport Exceeds Rent 
 
 Local Taxes not Heavier Here 
 
 Tithe Might be Redeemed 
 
 The Two Capitals of Owner and Occupier 
 
 f HE Capital of the Latter gives Better Return 
 
 IN Hiring than by Landowning 
 
 The Landowner 
 
 The Peasant Proprietor 
 
 The Irish Farmer 
 
 The Farmer's Losses 
 
 Old Grievances Revived 
 
 Complete Security to Farm Capital Promised .. 
 
 id 
 
 12 
 
 «3 
 14 
 16 
 
 17 
 
 i8 
 
 "9 
 
 zt> 
 21 
 «3 
 
 27 
 zg 
 31 
 
VI 
 
 Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Enabling Measures r 33 
 
 Proposals of the Farmers' Alliance 34 
 
 Ulster System not Applicable Here 35 
 
 Compensation to Tenants 37 
 
 Rights OF Outgoing Tenants ... 39 
 
 Home Production Capable of Increase 41 
 
 Magnitude of the Interests Involved 44 
 
 Benefit to the Labourer 45 
 
 Table of Imports and Prices at two Periods ... 47 
 
THE 
 
 BRITISH LAND QUESTION. 
 
 The Opening Address of James Cairo, C.B., 
 F.R.S., President of the Statistical Society, 
 delivered on Tuesday, 15M November, 1881. 
 
 On taking the chair last year as your President, 
 I brought under your notice the Land Question, 
 and the extraordinary development of agri- 
 cultural production in America. Since that 
 time an entire session of Parliament has been 
 devoted to the passing of the Irish Land Act. 
 The heavy losses sustained by the English and pressing 
 Scotch farmers, by an unprecedented series of early legis- 
 bad harvests, must compel early consideration, 
 by the legislature, of the land question in this 
 country. As it is a subject of the first impor- 
 tance, and one with which for more than thirty 
 years I have been publicly identified, I think I 
 
8 The British Land Question. 
 
 cannot better occupy your attention on the 
 opening of this session of the Society, than 
 in placing before you some circumstances which 
 it may be well to keep in view in legislating for 
 its judicious settlement. 
 
 The extent of the pressure has been vari- 
 ously estimated. The loss has fallen chiefly on 
 the wheat and sheep districts of the country, on 
 the eastern and southern side of the kingdom, 
 
 Nearly and the midlands. We may assume the actual 
 
 one-third 
 
 of farming loss of farming capital, from the calamitous 
 
 capital lost 
 
 in this seasons, at not less than the 120 millions lately 
 
 country; 
 
 stated by the Prime Minister, which is nearly 
 one-third of the total farming capital. But 
 though the loss has been general, it has been less 
 in degree in the grazing than in the corn 
 districts, in many parts of which more than 
 the half of the farmers' capital has disappeared, 
 chiefly The chief cause has been an unprecedented series 
 
 through a , , , . 
 
 eontinu- of bad seasons, with only two good crops m ten 
 
 anceofbad 
 
 seasons, years, and among the bad ones that of 1879 the 
 
 \yorst of the century, 
 in which Our neighbours in western Europe appear to 
 
 Western 
 
 Europe have been visited, though not so severely, with 
 
American Production. 9 
 
 the same unfavourable weather, and conse- partici- 
 pated, but 
 
 quently there has been a large decline of not so se- 
 verely. 
 
 exported corn from Germany and France, the 
 
 latter of which, instead of exporting wheat, has 
 
 drawn considerable supplies from America. 
 
 On the other hand, a series of productive But Ame- 
 rican pro- 
 years and good prices have stimulated in an duction 
 
 was at the 
 
 extraordinary degree the extension of wheat same time 
 
 stimulated 
 
 growing in the United States of America. In ^y g°°<l 
 ° ° seasons 
 
 a single year they increased their acreage by an ^"^ ^'^ 
 extent equal to our total growth. In the twenty 
 years from 1840 to i860, their wheat production 
 rose from 10 to 20 million quarters ; in the 
 twenty years from i860 to 1880, it grew from 20 
 to 60 millions, — and their extent of good wheat 
 land is practically unlimited. The two great 
 corn products of that country are wheat and 
 Indian corn, in regard to the first of which 
 this country, and western Europe generally, will , 
 
 become increasingly dependent on America, and andislike- 
 
 lyhereafter 
 
 the price of wheat here will be chiefly ruled by to rule the 
 
 prices of 
 
 the production there. com in 
 
 Western 
 
 But it is a most encouraging fact for British Europe, 
 agriculture that, notwithstanding the enormous 
 
lo The British Land Question. 
 
 Though increase of foreign produce competing with it, 
 
 competing 
 
 produce the price maintains, and in most cases increases, 
 
 has vastly 
 
 increased, its level. This will be seen in a table appended 
 the prices 
 
 in most ^q this paper, which embraces a comparison of 
 cases nave i j. - i 
 
 not fallen, j-jjg imports into this country of the main articles 
 
 of food, between the first five and the last five of 
 
 the past twenty years. Reading it shortly, the 
 
 imports of live, cattle have increased 90 per cent. 
 
 in quantity and 16 per cent, in price, — of sheep 
 
 150 per cent, in quantity, and 15 per cent, in 
 
 price, — fresh meat 220 per cent, in weight, and 
 
 13 per cent, in price, — butter 75 per cent, in 
 
 weight, and 16 per cent, in price, — cheese 135 
 
 per cent, in weight, and 8 per cent, in price, — 
 
 Salted pro- while the only edible article of animal produce 
 
 visions, , . , , , . . . 
 
 wheat, and which has decreased m price is salted provisions, 
 
 wool have 
 
 slightly which have increased 250 per cent, in quantity, 
 
 fallen in 
 
 price. but diminished in price 7 per cent. In regard 
 
 to corn, barley has increased 90 per cent, in 
 
 quantity, and 10 per cent, in price, — oats 122 
 
 per cent, in quantity, and 14 per cent, in price, — 
 
 but wheat, which has increased in quantity 
 
 75 per cent, has fallen- 4 per cent, in price. 
 
 English wool has suffered from the increase 
 
General Rise of Price. ri 
 
 of foreign import and the change of fashion, 
 the price having fallen nearly lo per cent. The 
 fall in the price of wheat and wool, in the wheat 
 and sheep counties, coupled with the mortality 
 in sheep, presses very severely on these counties. 
 But it is indeed remarkable that though the 
 import of meat and provisions has nearly trebled, 
 and that of corn has doubled, the price in every 
 cELse, except salted provisions, wool, and wheat, 
 has increased. The decline in the price of 
 wheat, on an import in the last year of three 
 and a-half million tons, which is two-thirds 
 of our whole supply, is as yet only 4 per cent. 
 Barley and oats, the description of corn which Barley and 
 
 Oats have 
 
 the British Islands yield in perfection, have both increased 
 
 in price. 
 
 increased in value, and would have risen more 
 but for the check caused by the constantly 
 growing imports of Indian corn, which now 
 reach two million tons in a year, — a wonderful 
 addition, at a moderate cost, to the nutriment 
 and support of all animal life in the United 
 Kingdom. But seeing so general a rise of price, 
 in the face of imports of such magnitude, what 
 would have been the condition of our increasing 
 
12 The British Land Question. 
 
 population if any effective curb had been placed 
 
 on them ? 
 
 In the ten years between 1871 and 1881, 
 
 and chiefly in the latter part of the period, a 
 
 Conver- considerable extent of arable land has been 
 sion of 
 
 arable to converted to permanent pasture. In that direc- 
 pasture ; 
 
 tion 828,000 acres of corn, and 228,000 acres of 
 
 green crops have been absorbed, and an annual 
 return therefrom of about eight millions sterling 
 has consequently disappeared. For though the 
 permanent grass has at the same time been in- 
 creased by 2,2o8,ddo acres, and two acres of 
 grass thus substituted for one of arable, the 
 and yet live stock has fallen from its highest point in 
 
 heavy 
 
 decline in 1 874 by 346,000 cattle and 6,856,000 sheep, a 
 
 number of 
 
 live-stock, loss exceeding ;^ii8,000,000 in value. This is a 
 
 caused " 
 
 chiefly by striking proof of the injury done to the grazing 
 
 quality of yalue of the finer grass lands, especially by the 
 fluke disease in sheep, in addition to the actual 
 loss of crops on the arable land by the low tem- 
 perature, excessive moisture, and defective 
 quality of the seasons since that year. And to 
 some extent it reveals also the contraction of 
 the capital of the farmers, many of whom have 
 
Cost of Transport. 13 
 
 been obliged .to part with a portion of their 
 complement of live stock in order to meet their 
 engagements. 
 
 In considering the question, for the home 
 producer, of the kind of produce in which he is 
 best likely to succeed against his foreign com- 
 petitor, the weight to be transported from great 
 
 distances is very important. A ton of meat or Produce 
 
 of six acres 
 provisions is six times the value of a ton of corn, in the form 
 
 of meat or 
 
 and, as these are yielded by the land .in about provisions, 
 
 as lightly 
 
 like proportions, the produce of six acres in the trans- 
 ported as 
 
 form of meat or provisions could be transported *^^t of one 
 
 acre of 
 
 (if the rate of carriage were the same) as cheaply '^°™- 
 as that of one acre of corn. But provisions 
 cannot yet be handled with the same facility as 
 com, and therefore the rate is higher. Still 
 there can be little doubt that ingenuity will 
 devise methods by which this difficulty will be 
 largely overcome, there being so big a profit in 
 every farthing per ton per mile that can be saved 
 over a distance of four or five thousand miles. 
 This is already showing itself in the more rapid 
 proportionate increase which has taken place in 
 the relative imports of the last twenty years, 
 
14 The British Land Question. 
 
 Hence a those of meat and other animal produce having 
 
 propor- 
 tionately increased 175 per cent., and those of corn 90 
 
 greater in- 
 crease of per cent. The proportion is already doubled ; 
 
 the former ^ ^ ^ ■' 
 
 in late and the practice of conveying, over vast dis- 
 likely still tances, that description of produce which can be 
 
 packed in the least bulk, must prevail and 
 
 extend. 
 
 It would seem not necessary therefore to 
 
 overturn the general principle of the agricultural 
 
 system under which British agriculture has at- 
 Mixedhus- tained pre-eminence. Mixed husbandry, corn 
 
 bandry, 
 
 therefore, and cattle, will continue to hold their ground. 
 
 will 
 
 continue Our cattle cannot be reared without winter 
 
 in this 
 
 country. fodder, and that can be most cheaply found in 
 
 the straw of the corn crops, which at once sup- 
 plies ^ood and yields manure. The value of 
 straw, though not reckoned in money, is a large 
 The alter- addition to that of the corn. The alternation 
 
 nation of 
 
 crops of corn, and green crops, and grass, keeps the 
 
 refreshes 
 
 the soil, land refreshed. It proportions the work to the 
 
 and gives 
 
 varied em- seasons, and by its variety elicits the skill of the 
 
 ployment. 
 
 cultivator, and gives employment to the labourer, 
 and to the blacksmith, the carpenter, and the 
 village shopkeeper. The country feeds the town 
 
Widening Competition. 15 
 
 not only with fresh provisions, but recruits it 
 with fresh life. There will be still room for all 
 conditions of men amongst us, and no need to 
 convert the surface of England into a vast grass 
 field. Those parts of the country in the western 
 midlands, the west, and in Ireland, which by 
 climate and soil are least fitted for corn, will go 
 more into grass, but the " convertible " soils of 
 the rest of these islands will, in the general 
 interests, be most profitably continued under 
 arable cultivation. 
 
 The wider competition to which British agri- Expanding 
 
 competi- 
 
 culture is now exposed, differs only in degree tionno 
 
 new expe- 
 
 from that which our predecessors little more rience, 
 
 though 
 
 than a century ago sought to defend themselves, "ow on a 
 " It is not more than fifty years ago," says Adam ^d™ing 
 Smith, " that some of the counties in the neigh- 
 bourhood of London petitioned the Parliament 
 against the extension of the turnpike roads into 
 the remoter counties. Those remoter counties, 
 they pretended, from the cheapness of labour 
 and land, would be able to sell their grass and 
 com cheaper in the London market than them- 
 selves, and would thereby reduce their rents, and 
 
1 6 The British Land Question. 
 
 * 
 
 ruin their cultivation. Their rents, however," he 
 adds, " have risen, and their cultivation has been 
 " improved since that time." 
 
 In much the same spirit it was lately pro- 
 posed in some quarters to reimpose a protective 
 
 The duty of 5 s. on imported corn. But our vicinity 
 natural . , , . 
 
 protection to the best markets in the world, in our various 
 of vicinity 
 
 to market centres of population, not now limited to London, 
 
 which we 
 
 possess, is gives us a natural protection much higher than 
 
 equal to an 
 
 import this. The cost of transport from the western 
 
 duty of 
 
 I2S. a prairies, to our competitors in this market, at 
 
 the lowest rate hitherto reached, is is. 6d. on a 
 
 bushel of corn, which is a natural protection of 
 
 1 2s. on a quarter, and equal to 42s. an acre on 
 
 the average produce of our wheat crops, and 
 
 somewhat more on barley and oats.. If this rate 
 
 And even should, in the progress t)f invention and com- 
 
 ifthis 
 
 should be petition, be reduced by even so much as one- 
 reduced 
 
 one-third, third, viz., to IS. a bushel, we should still have 
 by reduc- ' 
 
 tion of a natural protection equal to the average rent 
 
 would still of our corn land. Is it to be supposed that the 
 
 be equal '■ '■ 
 
 to the British farmer, with his inherited and acquired 
 average ' ^ 
 
 com-knd ^^'^^' ^'^^^ ^^^ command of labour at a much 
 "^' lower price than that in America, and when 
 
Local Taxes. 17 
 
 legal security shall be given him for his invested 
 capital, would, with this advantage, by which he 
 starts on equal terms, be unable to meet his 
 foreign competitor ? 
 
 It has beeh indeed stated recently that the 
 rates, tithes, and taxes which the English farmer 
 has to pay are equivalent to, and do away with, 
 this natural protection, the idea being that the 
 American producer is not weighted by local 
 burdens. Rates and taxes in this country, so The rates 
 
 and taxes 
 
 far as they can be shown to be inequitably in this 
 
 country, 
 
 imposed on the land, are undoubtedly a griev- so far as 
 
 inequit- 
 
 ance which should be fairly readjusted ; but it ^^y im- 
 posed on 
 
 is a delusion to imagine that the producer in 'Jj^'f?^' 
 the United States is exempt from their burden. ^^^^^Vd . 
 In those new countries all the conveniences 
 which have been the slow growth of centuries 
 here, have to be provided at once there. Roads, 
 bridges, court-houses, jails, schools, churches, 
 have to be constructed by the young , colony joVot^^x- 
 from its own resources. The local taxation of new °^^ 
 even in a comparatively old State, when I was ^here all 
 
 J has to be 
 
 in Ohio some years ago, exceeded i per cent, done in a 
 
 short space 
 
 of the capital value of the real property of the of time. 
 
1 8 2 HE British Land Question. 
 
 State, which would be equal, at our rates of" 
 investment in this country, to nearly one-third 
 of the annual rental of the land. And in 
 regard to tithe, it is not of the nature of a 
 rate, but is part of the rent, and is therefore 
 Tithe is itself subject to be rated. In so far as it is 
 
 not a rate 
 
 but part of felt to be a hardship, there would be no great 
 
 the rent, 
 
 and difficulty, if all parties interested would agree, 
 
 might be 
 
 ^H*^"^'^d ^^ 'bringing about an arrangement by which 
 
 and ex- ^jjg tithe-owners as a class might receive from 
 tmguisned. ° 
 
 the State the average of their present net 
 income, and the landowner would be gradually 
 redeeming the tithe by paying the full amount 
 direct to the State, for such a period of years 
 as would extinguish it, on the same principle 
 as tithes in Ireland have been dealt with in 
 order to be redeemed. 
 The land- There are two capitals employed in British 
 
 lords' 
 
 capital agriculture, that of the landowner and that of 
 
 safe, and ^ 
 
 yielding ^-j^g farmer. The first has hitherto been certain 
 
 small re- 
 
 tenants^'*^ and safe, and therefore yielding a small return ; 
 tFve"d^'- *^^ other speculative, and liable to seasons 
 on"se^asons ^"^^ competition prices, and requiring a much 
 petitio™' larger percentage to cover risk. The capitalist 
 
The Two Capitals. 19 
 
 is content with 3 per cent, for his secure invest- and re- 
 quiring 
 ment, which carried with it also influence and a much 
 
 larger per- 
 
 position. A farm worth £%0 an acre for the free- centage to 
 
 cover risk. 
 
 hold needs a further £\o zx\. acre to provide the 
 farmer's capital for its cultivation. The land- 
 lord is satisfied with a return of 3 per cent, 
 on his ;^SO, while the tenant looks for 10 per 
 cent, for management, capital, and skill on his 
 ;^io. Suppose that the farmer has a capital 
 sufficient to buy 100 acres at this price, and 
 stock them, he would get for his ;£'5,ooo invested 
 in freehold £i'30, and for his ;£'i,ooo farm 
 capital ;^ 1 00, together ;^2 so. But if he followed 
 the custom of this country, and used the whole 
 of his capital in cultivating another man's land, The 
 he would with his ;£'6,ooo hire 600 acres, on hiring his 
 
 farm, 
 
 which his return ought to be £600. He, in avails him- 
 self of the 
 
 truth, then trades on the capital of the land- land- 
 owner's 
 
 owner, practically lent to him at the low rate capital, 
 
 practically 
 
 of % per cent, which he converts into a trade lent him 
 
 •' ^ at 3 per 
 
 profit, on his own capital, of 10. <=™t. 
 
 We cannot make a comparison between this 
 system and the extremely liberal terms offered 
 by the Irish Land Act to those farmers who 
 
20 The British Land Question. 
 
 desire to become freeholders of their farms. 
 
 From the For the price of land in Ireland is reckoned 
 lower rate 
 
 of price of at twenty years' purchase, yielding a return of 
 land in Ire- 
 land the 5 per cent., which admits of the existing rent 
 
 veryliberal ° 
 
 wh^h°" redeeming the freehold, on Government terms, 
 
 mere are' '" thirty-five years." The Irish farmer may thus 
 
 byGove'm- become the owner of his farm by paying his 
 
 tobuyTheir Present rent continuously for that time. But 
 
 not equally ^^ British farmer cannot buy his farm for less 
 
 by the than thirty years' purchase, which is equal to 
 British , , . , , 
 
 farmers. little ovcr a 3 per cent, return, and which he 
 
 could only redeem (even with the advantage 
 
 of Government terms) by an annual payment 
 
 one-half greater than his present rent. If, 
 
 therefore. Parliament were disposed to offer 
 
 him the same assistance in order to acquire 
 
 - the freehold, he would be unable to use it with 
 
 equal advantage. 
 
 Thus no It would thus appear that neither in our 
 
 essential 
 
 change, system of agriculture, nor in the principle of 
 
 either in 
 
 the system a divided but harmoniously working separate 
 
 ture, or in capital of landlord and tenant, would it be 
 the two ' 
 
 r'dT^d°^ necessary or advisable to introduce in this 
 and tenant, country any essential change. If this be 
 
The Landowner. 21 
 
 clearly recognised and admitted, we shall be seems re- 
 able to concentrate our aim upon those practical here. 
 questions affecting landowner and farmer in 
 which the legislature can really afford assistance. 
 
 And, first, as regards the landowner. He ^^ 
 
 is the nominal owner of five-sixths of the joint °''™?'' 
 
 ■■ nominaUy 
 
 capital embarked in British agriculture, and g^^jo™ 
 upon him in the end ought to come the chief ^ytaUm- 
 weight of any disaster that befalls it. But if BrftishAg- 
 his ownership is so hampered by entail and But, if only 
 family settlements that he cannot use his tenant, he 
 
 • 1 1 r I r 1 1 '^ disabled 
 
 position with the freedom of absolute owner- from tak- 
 ing his fair 
 
 ship, he is disabled from bearing his fair share share in 
 
 the duties 
 
 of such a strain as that which is now pressing of owner- 
 ship. 
 
 on the land. Having only the income, when 
 
 that ceases to come in he is helpless. On this 
 point I need not here further enlarge, as I 
 entered upon it at some length in my address 
 last year, and it has elsewhere received the 
 most ample discussion from the most capable 
 authorities. It is only by fee-simple ownership 
 that a landowner in difficult times can do 
 justice to his estate and his tenants. And if 
 circumstances oblige him to sell part of the 
 
22 The British Land Question. 
 
 property in order that he may be better able 
 
 to meet the claims upoti the rest, the land in 
 
 all probability will pass into hands more capable 
 
 of rendering it fully productive ; for the power 
 
 to sell confers also the - opportunity to buy. 
 
 This ques- This question is now ripe for legislation, and we 
 
 tion is now 
 
 ripe for have the assurance of the Prime Minister that 
 
 legislation, 
 
 and has the great subject of the devolution of land, the 
 
 been pro- 
 mised by transfer of land, the registry of land, and the 
 Govern- ' 
 
 i^nttobe mode of borrowing on land, being subjects of 
 dealt with, great importance to all connected with land, 
 
 will be dealt with by the present Government 
 
 efficiently and fearlessly. 
 
 Let us now consider the question as it affects 
 
 The the farmer. And first it may be well to say a 
 
 British 
 
 system of word or two upon that distinctive feature of 
 
 cultivating 
 
 tenants, British agriculture, the cultivation of the land by 
 capitalist farmers, as compared with the peasant 
 proprietors of other countries, or the small far- 
 mers of Ireland. Eighty-five per cent, of the 
 cultivated land of Great Britain is held in farms 
 averaging i68 acres, and 15 per cent, in farms 
 of 50 acres and under. Of the 32 million culti- 
 vated acres, 27 millions are held by the class of 
 
Peasant Proprietors. 23 
 
 considerable farmers, men employing labour, and 
 using labour-saving machinery and other means 
 by which labour is rendered most productive. 
 The individual capital employed in the cultiva- 
 tion of the soil will average about ;£'i,300, which 
 is fully equal to the average capital of a French 
 peasant proprietor. The Englishman, in fairly 
 prosperous times, will make a 10 per cent, 
 return upon the whole of it, or ;£^I30. The compared 
 
 with the 
 
 Frenchman will receive ,10 per cent, on only one- French 
 
 system of 
 
 sixth of his employed in cultivation, and 3 per peasant 
 
 pro- 
 cent, on five-sixths sunk in the ownership of pnetors; 
 
 the soil — together, ;^S3. The 168 acres of the 
 
 Englishman will afford an annual expenditure, 
 
 on labour and tradesmen, of ;^2SO to ;^300. 
 
 The 22 acres of the Frenchman will not more 
 
 than employ himself and his family. The aver- their 
 
 • T^ 1 1 • o 1 1 1 respective 
 
 age wheat crop m England is 28 bushels an acre ; results. 
 
 that of France barely 18. There seems thus no 
 inducement to copy the French system. 
 
 The French peasant farmer and his family is 
 described as engaged in labour the most assidu- 
 ous, unremitting, and often excessive, the same 
 extent of land requiring the labour of eight 
 
24 The British Land Question. 
 
 peasant farmers and their families as would give 
 employment to one supervising farmer and five 
 or six labourers in this country. Inasmuch as 
 the result of their respective efforts is a produc- 
 tion nearly as two to one in favour of the Eng- 
 lish system, there must be a superior economy in 
 
 M. De our method. In the words of the greatest French 
 
 Lavergne's 
 
 (the great writer Oil agricultural affairs, the late M. de 
 
 French 
 
 economist) Lavergne — 
 
 statement 
 
 of the 
 
 merits of " To increase production without proportionately in- 
 
 svstems creasing the number of hands, and thereby to add to the 
 
 general comfort — this is the ultimate object of economical 
 
 science, the solution of the greatest social difficulties. 
 
 Let us take care how we speculate upon low wages 
 
 through a superabundance of hands. There is no greater 
 
 or more fatal error. Although the French peasant is 
 
 frequently proprietor of the land, and thus adds a little 
 
 rent and a little profit to his wage, he does not live so 
 
 well as the English farm labourer. The gross production 
 
 of France and that of England proper may be divided 
 
 nearly as follows : — 
 
 England. 
 
 Proprietor's rent and profit 
 
 of cultivation ... 
 Wages and expenses 
 Taxes 
 
 Total 
 
French and Irish Farmers. 25 
 
 He adds : — 
 
 " The responsibility for the imperfect state of our 
 agriculture does not attach altogether to our cultivators. 
 For they have not risen to the general laws which govern 
 the economical development of communities. There 
 can be no good agricultural without a good economical 
 condition." 
 
 This was written 25 years ago, but it is true 
 of the present day. A recent writer describes 
 the Hfe of a French peasant labourer as not an 
 enviable one — work early and late, poor food, 
 and not much of it. To change our system to change 
 
 our system 
 
 to that of the small farmers of Ireland, or to that of 
 
 France 
 
 the peasant proprietors of France, would be or Ireland 
 
 would be a 
 
 to go back from the power loom to the hand retrograde 
 
 step. 
 loom, from practice with science to practice 
 
 without it. 
 
 Let us see how the comparison stands with 
 
 the small farm system of Ireland. The average 
 
 holding in that country is about 25 acres, and if 
 
 we even reckon a capital of £% an acre employed 
 
 by the farmer, and a return of 10 per cent., he 
 
 would have but ;^20 for the support of himself 
 
 and his family. Nothing can be spared for 
 
 economising or increasing production. A simple 
 
26 The British Land Question. 
 
 test of productive agriculture is the surplus that 
 is left for rent after all the expenses of cultiva- 
 tion, including the interest of capital, have been 
 provided for. To ascertain this I have applied 
 the same principle to the two countries by 
 Compari- taking the value of the agricultural crops and 
 
 son with 
 
 Ireland as stoclc in Great Britain and Ireland respectively, 
 
 shown by 
 
 the respec- but reckoning corn, cattle, and sheep at a rate 
 rent to° °^ one-fourth higher here than in Ireland, and yet 
 produce. ^^ British farmer's rent, as shown by the land 
 rental upon which income-tax is paid, bears a 
 proportion of 5 s. 4d. to the pound of that value, 
 and the Irish farmer's apparently only 2s. 8d. 
 But the income-tax assessment in Ireland is not, 
 as in this country, upon actual rent, but follows 
 the valuation for poor law purposes, which is 
 much under the actual rent ; and to that extent, 
 whatever it may be, this comparison must be 
 modified. But even if it truly represented the 
 actual rent, it would not be matter of surprise 
 that a system of husbandry which barely sup- 
 ports the farmer and his family should leave a 
 smaller surplus for the landowner, the labourer, 
 and the tradesman. 
 
The Farmer's Losses. 27 
 
 I can have no doubt, therefore, that the true The true 
 
 policy in 
 
 policy in British agriculture is to strengthen and British 
 
 agriculture 
 
 maintain it on its present lilies. That the is to 
 
 strengthen 
 
 collapse here has been sharper and the losses it on its 
 
 present 
 
 greater than in Ireland is true, for we had more li^^s. 
 
 to lose. The want of sunlight and heat is more 
 
 damaging to our principal crop, wheat, and to 
 
 the greatly more artificial or intensive system of 
 
 agriculture practised in this country. And the 
 
 long continuance of lean years hcis cut deeply 
 
 into farming capital, making such havoc as only 
 
 a return of an equal continuance of good seasons 
 
 can in any considerable degree restore. The The loss 
 
 caused 
 evil is the more keenly felt that the loss has by bad 
 
 seasons is 
 
 fallen mainly on the smaller part of the agri- J^^™""^^, 
 
 ' ^ ^^ keenly felt 
 
 cultural capital — the farmers' share of the joint J^^f^" 
 venture. And the cry that has arisen, north ^^^^.°" 
 and south, for legislative interposition is the ™^flie^jo^t 
 outcome of a feeling of injury that a natural '^^^ ' 
 calamity, which could not be foreseen or pro- 
 vided against, has been in large proportion left 
 to be borne by the weaker part of the common 
 interest on which it has fallen. For this, in the 
 majority of cases, the nominal landowner is less 
 
28 The British Land Question. 
 
 A reduc- to blame than the state of the law which fetters 
 
 tion of 
 
 rent, till and incapacitates him. What the tenant in the 
 
 better 
 
 times come more distressed districts requires is an imme- 
 
 round, is 
 
 required in diate, though it may be temporary, reduction of 
 
 distressed j-ent, to keep him going till the better times 
 
 come, which nature and legislative changes may 
 
 But the more slowly bring round. But besides the 
 
 land has 
 
 lost con- actual loss of farming capital, the land in this 
 
 dition, and 
 
 that in an country within the last ten years has become 
 
 old country 
 
 is difficult less productive. To restore the condition of the 
 to restore. 
 
 soil in an old country like this is becoming more 
 difficult and costly. There are indeed silent 
 natural processes going on towards that end, 
 one of which, of wonderful power, in the form of 
 worm-casts, has been discovered to us in the 
 most recent work of Dr. Darwin. But as one 
 generation follows another, more and more of 
 
 There is, its natural fertility is taken out of the land, and 
 
 therefore, 
 
 pressing ^ Correspondingly higher rate of farming is 
 
 theland"^ required to maintain it. There is, therefore, 
 
 shacklS' pressing necessity for land legislation, which on 
 
 hinder it ^^ ^"^^ hand shall free the landowner from the 
 
 d'e^t \^ttf shackles which prevent him dealing with it to 
 
 advantage, the best advantage, and on the other give to the 
 
Old Grievances. 29 
 
 farmer that assurance of security to which his 
 share of the capital is equally entitled. 
 
 Questions of this kind ripen slowly in this 
 country. Thirty-one years ago, in speaking on These 
 
 questions 
 
 this subject, I pointed to the practical grievances urged 
 
 thirty 
 
 which interfered with the establishment of a years ago, 
 sounder relation between landlord and farmer. 
 " Do not the laws of entail and settlement," I 
 then said, " disable a vast number of proprietors 
 and disincline others from giving the relief and 
 accommodation to their tenants which they 
 might give if they had the full disposal of their 
 estates .' Are not tenants and landlords mu- 
 tually conscious that almost every tenant is 
 obliged to starve his farm when he approaches 
 the end of his occupancy for want of some 
 equitable means of securing repayment for un- 
 exhausted improvements .' Is there not a ficti- 
 tious competition for land promoted by the 
 present state of the law of distress in England, 
 and of the law of hypothec in Scotland, en- 
 abling a needy or shortsighted landlord, with 
 comparative safety to himself, to pit men of 
 straw against men of capital, running up the 
 
30 The British Land Question. 
 
 tenants' rents and limiting their reasonable de- 
 mands for improvements ? These are practical 
 questions which have a direct bearing on the 
 condition of agricultural tenants, which have 
 happily not yet been appropriated by either 
 political party, and which are much more 
 worthy of the farmer's consideration than run- 
 ning after- the ignis fatuus of protection." These 
 
 but laid were topics pressing on the agricultural mind 
 
 aside 
 
 during the as we were entering upon our career of free 
 
 growing 
 
 prosperity trade, laid aside amid the growing prosperity " 
 
 of the 
 
 country, of the people, and their consequent increasing 
 
 and now 
 
 again consumption of agricultural produce, and now 
 
 into pro- again brought prominently to the front by the 
 
 of'bad^*^ continued losses of- calamitous seasons, and the 
 
 a.M°the Sudden development of an American competi- 
 
 devefop- tion which would have come upon us ten years 
 
 American earlier but for the check caused by the insurrec- 
 
 competi- 
 
 tion. tion of the South. 
 
 To an old land reformer like myself the 
 
 The decla- words of the Prime Minister,' in one of his great 
 
 ration of 
 
 the Prime Speeches at Leeds, in regard both to landowners 
 
 Minister 
 
 on this and farmers, are as the " light arising in the 
 
 subject. 
 
 darkness." " It is of capital and immediate 
 
Complete Security to Farmer. 31 
 
 importance for the farmer to see that effectual Complete 
 
 security to 
 
 and not abortive measures are taken to secure be given 
 
 to the 
 
 the whole interest of the tenants — not a part of interest 
 
 ^ of the 
 
 that interest, but the whole interest in his tenants. 
 improvements, and his interest as the law may 
 define it in his tenure" On this last point 
 I withhold an opinion until the object and 
 method shall be developed. For this must be 
 done with due regard to the various interests 
 concerned, first, the public, whose interest it is 
 that the limited territory nearest to them should 
 be kept in the highest state of productiveness, 
 and next, the landowner, the farmer, and the 
 labourer, to whose joint capital, skill, and industry 
 the work of so doing has been entrusted. 
 
 " One great cause of the advance in civilisa- 
 tion and the arts," says Adam Smith, "is the 
 increase of population, which, by keeping itself 
 on a level with the means of subsistence, 
 demands fresh discoveries and inventions as 
 much at one period as another, and insures 
 a continued improvement.'' In other words, 
 necessity is the mother of invention, and that xhe com- 
 implies competition, without which the stimulus principle 
 
32 The British Land Question. 
 
 the great to improvement would be wanting. The com- 
 
 stimulus to 
 
 improve- petition principle is accepted in all professions, 
 
 ment. 
 
 occupations, and business. In the law and 
 medicine the ablest men take the lead ; in 
 manufactures, the newest machines and the best 
 taste ; in the arts, the highest proficiency ; in 
 every branch of employment, honest and capable 
 work. The whole standard of proficiency is 
 elevated by the principle of competition. Agri- 
 culture is no exception to this rule if rightly 
 Difficulty exercised. But there are two interests at work 
 
 of appor- 
 tioning to which under the present state of the law may 
 
 each of 
 
 the two easily, and do often, become antagonistic and in- 
 
 interests of ^ ° ■ 
 
 landowner juj-jous. In all Other Occupations the individual 
 
 and tenant ^ '■ 
 
 s'LcTiv capacity is personal, and attains and keeps its 
 rewar . reward. But the cultivator of another man's land> 
 when he leaves the farm, passes it, so far as in- 
 creased by him in letable value, to his landlord, 
 without compensation, — the latter taking to him- 
 self the increased capital value, without giving to 
 the man who assisted in the development of that 
 increase any share of it. It may be this share 
 that Mr. Gladstone means by " the tenant's in- 
 terest, as the law may define it, in his ' tenure.' "■ 
 
Enabling Measures. 33 
 
 It would, however, be a great error, in regard It would 
 
 be an error 
 
 to British agriculture, to take any legislative to alter the 
 
 rule that 
 
 step which should tend to alter the well recog- the land- 
 
 ^ ^ lordshoiild 
 
 nised rule that the landlord makes all the ™^'^« ^^^ 
 
 permanent 
 
 permanent outlays required, and the tenant improve- 
 
 '^ y -1 » ments, and 
 
 finds only the capital for cultivation. And it 'g^trk^his 
 
 would be an equally mistaken policy to take any cui'ti'va-'° 
 
 course which should diminish the landowner's '""' 
 
 interest in the continued improvement of his or to 
 
 diminish ■ 
 
 property. The measures indicated by the Prime theowner's 
 
 interest in 
 
 Minister, when they become law, will place him the con- 
 tinuous 
 
 in a position which will enable him to take his improve- 
 ment of his 
 
 full share of the burden as well as the advantages property- 
 of his position, and it is on every account 
 desirable that the law for the better security of 
 the tenant's capital and interest should be passed 
 at the same time. It will indeed be a happy 
 conclusion of a long pending controversy if such 
 measures can be devised as will best tend to the 
 continuous increase of production, by giving a 
 distinct but united interest to both landlord and 
 tenant in obtaining that result. 
 
 _,, .„ , , , , . . . , . , Proposals 
 
 The Farmers Alliance, an association which of the 
 
 , . 1 /- Farmers' 
 
 has done good service to the farmers by the Alliance, j 
 
34 The British Land Question. 
 
 Parliamentary enquiry into railway charges 
 
 promoted by it last session, and is entitled to 
 
 speak with a certain degree of authority on 
 
 the subject, indicate two courses by which 
 
 the value of the farmers' improvements might 
 
 be ascertained, supposing that Parliament should 
 
 confer on the tenant a legal right to be paid 
 
 for improvements made by him in the soil, 
 
 and upon the property of another. First, 
 
 that the amount of that payment should be 
 
 assessed by valuation, subject to arbitration ; 
 
 or second, what they deem simpler and better. 
 
 That that the tenant should be entitled to a " mar- 
 
 which they 
 
 prefer is ketablc security" in those improvements, which 
 
 equivalent 
 
 to Ulster he might sell at the best price in the open 
 
 Tenant 
 
 l^ght- market. This they properly recognise as the 
 introduction into this country of the Ulster 
 tenant right. Now there is some risk that 
 
 Such a such a mode of compensation would prove 
 
 mode 
 
 likely to iHusory here, for on large farms in Ireland 
 prove delu- 
 sive in this there is little salable tenant right, because for 
 
 country : 
 
 such farms there is little competition. More- 
 
 and it is over, that right has grown up, and is founded 
 
 founded on r i • i ■ i i 
 
 a condition on a condition of things which does not exist 
 
Ulster System not Applicable here. 35 
 in this country. The Ulster tenant contends of things 
 
 not exis- 
 
 that his labour and capital have made the tent here. 
 farm — that buildings, roads, drains, and fences 
 are all of his creation. That is not so here. 
 The landowner in this country has two capitals 
 in the land, the soil and all that is beneath 
 it, and the buildings and other permanent 
 works made by his capital upon it, and re- 
 quired for the accommodation of the people 
 and the stock and crop of the farmer. On 
 good agricultural land, worth £^0 an acre, 
 the land will represent ^^35 of that value, and 
 the buildings and other permanent works £1^. 
 It is seldom that the farmer can command 
 more capital than what is needed for that 
 fuller cultivation of his farm which the times 
 require, and it is cheaper for him, even if he 
 possesses a surplus, to avail himself of his 
 landlord's capital for any permanent outlay 
 that may be needed on the freehold. 
 
 Whilst the Ulster principle cannot thus be It cannot, 
 
 therefore, 
 
 reasonably asked for here, the introduction of be reason- 
 ably asked 
 
 it would take away from the landowner that for here, 
 
 and its in- 
 
 interest and intimate connection with his troduction 
 
36 The British Land Question. 
 
 would property which would induce him, as heretofore, 
 absolve the 
 
 landowner to take his fuU share in th6 cost of its improve- 
 
 from tak- 
 ing his full ment. Nor would it be equitable to exclude 
 sharemthe 
 
 improve- the landowner, who holds five-sixths of the 
 ment of 
 
 the land, capital in the joint concern, from the choice of 
 
 his future tenant. But the " marketable security " 
 
 It would principle demands also the interposition of a 
 render ne- r ■, »■ /• 
 
 cessarythe Court to fix the rent for a future term, thus 
 
 interpo- 
 sition of a taking away from two parties (who, when the 
 
 court to fix _ _ ' 
 
 the rent, law of distress is altered, and improper pre- 
 ferences abolished, will stand on equal terms) 
 the right to contract with each other as men 
 do in every other branch of business. This is 
 a system of tutelage which has been found 
 necessary in Ireland, where among the small 
 
 and would holders the desire for land is almost a struggle 
 
 reduce 
 
 the free for ,life. But tutelage means inaction and 
 
 action of 
 
 landlord stagnation, living and acting under guardianship 
 
 and tenant * 
 
 to a state and restriction, which is the very position from 
 
 of tutelage 
 
 andrestric- which we desire to see both landlord and tenant 
 
 tion. 
 
 in this country emancipated. The opportunity 
 
 The outlet which young men now have of taking their 
 in the Co- 
 lonies or capital to farm in the colonies, or in the United 
 the United 
 States, will States, has provided an outlet which will greatly 
 
Agricultural Holdings Act. 37 
 
 restrict over-competition for farms at home — restrict 
 
 over-com- 
 
 while landowners, no longer able to rely on a petitionfor 
 
 farms here, 
 preferential claim on the property of their 
 
 tenants, will give little heed to tempting offers 
 
 from applicants with inadequate capital. And no 
 
 Court can be either so much interested in, or so and the 
 
 owner anrl 
 
 competent to judge of, the value of a farm as the the farmer 
 
 are the best 
 
 owner whose income depends upon it, and the judges of 
 
 the value 
 farmer whose living must be made out of it. °f ^ farm. 
 
 I think, therefore, that the other principle is 
 the better .one, viz., that the compensation for 
 the tenant's improvements should be ascertained 
 as at present, by valuation, subject to arbitra- 
 tion. And I further think that if the Agricultural The Agri- 
 cultural 
 Holdings Act (1875) were made the rule of law Holdings 
 
 Act might 
 in regard to the second and third classes of he made 
 
 the rule of 
 
 improvements, and the notice to quit were law in re- 
 extended to two years, the iirst class might be 2°? ^^ 
 
 ■' ' ° 3rd classes 
 
 left to the voluntary action of the landlords, ^^SP^Jih 
 while the most useful parts of the Act would at jj^ to™ 
 once come into operation, and prove a satis- Jg^^e to 
 factory guide both as to the objects of com- 
 pensation, and the mode of assessing their 
 value. 
 
38 The British Land Question. 
 
 Theim- The improvements of the first class under 
 
 improve- 
 ments of a that Act are those of a permanent character, 
 
 permanent 
 
 character which it is desirable that the landowners should 
 
 should in 
 
 all cases be in all cases execute, and in which the capital 
 
 executed 
 
 at cost of of the tenant can rarely be advantageously 
 
 landowner. 
 
 employed. But those of the second and third 
 
 classes are very proper objects of investment 
 
 for him, and for which he is justly entitled to 
 
 legal security. The extension of the notice to 
 
 quit from one year to two, when such legal 
 
 security for his improvements is also given, 
 
 would very much diminish the desire for a 
 
 lengthened term of lease, which was the sole 
 
 security the tenant heretofore possessed for 
 
 reimbursement of outlay on improvements, and 
 
 which could only be fully realised by letting 
 
 the farm run down in the closing years of the 
 
 term. 
 
 The future The position of the farmer would then be 
 
 • the tenant this : that he would hold a tenancy either under 
 under the 
 changes a lease for a term of years, or subject to two 
 
 contem- 
 plated, years' notice to quit ; that on quitting he would 
 
 be entitled, under the Agricultural Holdings 
 
 Act, to reimbursement in terms of that Act for 
 
Rights of Outgoing Tenants. 39 
 
 nis outlays under the second and third classes of 
 improvement ; and finally, for the interest in his 
 tenure, as appears to be contemplated by the 
 Prime Minister, he would receive the amount 
 which the law shall define as the value of that 
 interest. Both parties would then have an 
 advantage in maintaining the condition of the 
 farm to the close. 
 
 The payments to be made to the outgoing 
 tenant under the two classes of improvement 
 specified by the Act are for an expenditure by 
 him which remains unexhausted, and which his 
 successor pays because he receives the benefit. 
 This is no charge on the landlord, unless he 
 retains the farm in his own occupation. But 
 any payment which may be hereafter deter- 
 mined by the legislature to be due to the out- 
 going tenant for his "interest in his tenure'' 
 is clearly due by, and ought to be fixed by 
 law on, the landlord. In this question it is 
 necessary to keep in view the entire interests 
 affected. If too much care is given to com- if the out- 
 
 . going 
 
 pensate the outgoing tenant, beyond his rights, tenant's 
 
 interests 
 
 the loss will mainly fall on his successor, are unduly 
 
40 The British Laud Question. 
 
 compen- who to that extent will be crippled in his 
 sated, it 
 
 must capital. The number of incoming tenants is 
 
 cripple the 
 
 means of obviouslv as great as the outgoing, and the 
 those who / S S &> 
 
 have to interests of the public are on the side of the new 
 
 carry on 
 
 the pro- tenants who have to carry on the productive 
 ductive ' 
 
 i'S°"''^ yield of the land. 
 
 In order to bring tenants who are at present 
 
 under an agricultural lease at once into the 
 
 Tenants benefits of this arrangement, it might be enacted 
 
 under an ' . 
 
 existing that they should have the option to surrender 
 
 lease 
 
 mighthave their lease and adopt the amended Act. 
 
 the option 
 
 tosurren- The plan here sketched has the great 
 
 der their 
 
 'T^^tfh*^ advantage of legislative simplicity. It adopts, 
 Mnended ^jj-jj such changes as would render it effective, 
 the machinery of an Act carefully elaborated in 
 its details by the late government and Parlia- 
 ment, ^yith the addition of a new principle which 
 might be made self-adjusting, and it would 
 place both the landowner and farmer in a posi- 
 tion of greater independence and equality. No 
 further interference with freedom of contract is 
 introduced than is necessary for a just security 
 and the interests of both parties, instead of 
 being antagonistic, would under this amended 
 
Harmony of Interests. 41 
 
 principle naturally come to work in harmony This plan 
 
 is simple, 
 
 towards the highest scale of agricultural produc- and likely 
 
 to bring 
 
 tion. For, in regard to arable land, it ought thein- 
 
 terests of 
 
 never to be forgotten that the cultivator has it lancilord 
 
 ° and tenant 
 
 in his power, if he be so minded, to reduce the ?°'® ™'° 
 
 ^ ' ' narmony. 
 
 capital value of the land, and that it is therefore 
 against the interest of the landlord to force him 
 in self-defence to use this power by exacting the 
 highest possible rent. But when the farmer 
 feels that his land is so profitable that he would 
 lose by being deprived of it, he will protect it 
 from permanent injury, as he desires and ex- 
 pects to be further benefited by it. 
 
 In examining the various foreign articles of 
 agricultural produce which come into competi- 
 tion with our own, it may be of interest to point Relative 
 
 impor- 
 out their relative importance. Wheat alone, tanceof 
 
 various 
 
 worth ;£'40,ooo,ooo, nearly equals in value all competing 
 
 ^ ^ articles of 
 
 other edible articles, animal, com, and vegetable. ?^?^" _ 
 This does not include Indian corn, which we ^"'^^' 
 cannot grow in this climate. The wheat im- Wheat, 
 ported, if it could be grown with advantage in 
 this country, would occupy 5,000,000 acres of 
 
42 The British Land Question. 
 
 Butter. additional land. Next to it is butter, of the 
 
 value of ;£" 1 2,000,000, which, if produced at 
 
 home, would demand upwards of two million 
 
 Barley and additional acres. Then barley and oats, together 
 Oats. 
 
 of the value of ;£'9,300,ooo, which, if grown 
 
 in this country, would require an additional 
 
 Cattle and 1 1 million acres. To produce the live cattle and 
 Sheep. 
 
 sheep, and the cheese imported, together of a 
 
 value of ;^ 1 5,000,000, would call into requisition 
 another 3,000,000 acres. In each one of these 
 I believe there is ample room for success- 
 ful home competition, if each man goes with 
 confidence into that special branch for which 
 his soil and climate, and facility of market, offer 
 The value him the surest probability of success. In regard 
 
 of the * 
 
 straw of to wheat, barley, and oats, he must consider 
 
 home 
 
 crops, in the value of the straw in addition to the corn, 
 
 addition to 
 
 the com, for it is with him either a marketable article 
 
 an im- 
 portant (with which the foreigner cannot compete), or 
 considera- 
 
 tio"- an article of nearly equal value as fodder for 
 
 the live stock on his farm. In the produc- 
 
 Miik, tion of milk, of which the consumption is 
 
 capable of . ,. , . . . 
 
 any exten- rapidly extendmg, there is no foreign com- 
 
 sion, and . 
 
 with no petition, and it could be increased in this 
 
Home Production. 43 
 
 country to any extent if the profits were not foreign 
 
 competi- 
 
 so largely appropriated by the intermediate tion. 
 agent between the producer and consumer. A 
 dairy farmer can barely make 2d. a quart for Undue 
 
 proportion 
 
 his milk at the nearest railway station, and for of its value 
 
 retained 
 
 this the dealer gets 5^. from his customers in '^y*^ 
 ° -" retailer. 
 
 town. Another \d. a quart would enable the 
 farmer, within practicable reach of the con- 
 sumer, to make a larger profit by selling his 
 milk than in any other form in which he can at 
 present use it. And, if we desire to keep to 
 ourselves a substantial share of the ;^ 12,000,000 
 now paid for foreign butter, we shall have little 
 difficulty in doing so, in those parts of the 
 country more remote from large populations, by 
 
 establishing butter factories, to which milk from Butter 
 
 factories 
 the surrounding districts could be sent to capable of, 
 
 profitable 
 
 be converted into butter of the best quality, extension. 
 by the best known modern processes, and 
 which could be warranted to be free from all 
 modern foreign adulteration. When the landed 
 interests of this country shall be placed on all 
 points in the most favourable conditions for 
 mutual co-operation, we would be wanting of 
 
44 The British Land Question. 
 
 faith in the enterprise and capacity of our own 
 people if, with the immense advantage of the 
 best market at our doors, we should be afraid to 
 compete with the foreigner in the production 
 of any article suited to our climate and soil. 
 
 For this is indeed a great interest on which I 
 
 have ventured to offer these remarks for your 
 
 Great im- consideration. It represents one-fourth of the 
 
 portance 
 
 oftheAg- entire capital of the United Kingdom, and in 
 
 ricultural 
 
 interest: one form or another gives an income and 
 employment to nearly an equal proportion of 
 its inhabitants. It far exceeds any other single 
 interest in this country in importance, influence, 
 and strength. Possessing, till within very recent 
 years, a commanding power in the legislature, 
 that power had been mistakenly used to main- 
 tain in fetters, and consequent stagnation, a 
 business which can only thrive by expand- 
 ing in full proportion with the other business 
 interests of the country. An unequalled 
 period, of calamitous seasons has discovered 
 the weakness which had escaped obser- 
 vation during • the peaceful and prosperous 
 years enjoyed by this country, while our 
 
Advantage to Labourers. 45 
 
 neighbours, west and east, were wasted with 
 war. But the blow at last has fallen ; land- 
 lord and tenant are heavily smitten by it, and 
 we will trust that the legislature, by a wise and 
 timely effort, will devise and carry through such 
 measures in the approaching session of Parlia- 
 ment cis shall give freedom to the landowner in 
 his future dealings with the land, and proper 
 security to the farmer for his capital and enter- 
 prise. The movement that must follow the un- and the 
 
 influence 
 shackling of this great and leading industry that would 
 
 be the con- 
 
 would be felt in everytrade, and in every village sequence 
 
 of its free- 
 and country town. And the third branch of the ^om on 
 
 the busi- 
 
 agricultural interest — ^the labourers — would reap "«=! ="i^ 
 the benefit of it in full proportion with the rest. *^ , 
 
 '■ '■ country, 
 
 They must be the earliest to feel the bene- ?"<!*« 
 
 ■' increased 
 
 ficial effects of an industrial movement in for°^f. 
 British agriculture. The general introduction i^abouiT. 
 of machine power, and the more scientific 
 methods adopted in every branch of the man- 
 agement of live stock and its products, have 
 largely awakened their interest and intelligence. 
 And they are the one branch of the agricultural 
 interest which has come through the heavy 
 
46 The British Land Question. 
 
 losses of late seasons with little scath. At no 
 
 previous time within the last three centuries have 
 
 their wages commanded so large a share of the 
 
 Great im- necessaries of life. Since the time of Elizabeth 
 
 provement 
 
 of late wages have risen sixfold, while the price of bread 
 
 years in 
 
 thecondi- has only doubled. In 1770, in Arthur Young's 
 
 tion of the 
 
 agricul- day, it cost the labourer five days' work to pay 
 
 labourer, fg^ ^ bushel of wheat, which he can now earn 
 with the labour of less than half that time If 
 he is saving and thrifty, as many, especially in 
 
 Abun- the northern counties, are, there are abundance 
 
 dance of 
 
 small of small farms in every county to which an in- 
 
 farms in 
 
 every dustrious labourer may aspire. Of the 550,000 
 
 county to 
 
 which the agricultural holdings in Great Britain, 390,000 
 
 industrious 
 
 and thrifty ^re of fifty acres and under. The labourer's 
 
 labourer 
 
 ™^y small capital will go six times further in hiringf 
 
 aspire. r o & 
 
 a farm than in buying it, because he has the 
 advantage of working with the landowner's 
 capital on five-sixths of his investment at the 
 low rate of 3 per cent. This valuable privilege 
 tells even more in his favour than on the 
 larger holdings, because the proportion of compa- 
 ratively unproductive fixed capital, in buildings, 
 is so much larger on small farms. 
 
Quantities and Prices. 
 
 47 
 
 oj a? 
 •is S> S 
 
 *fe. 
 
 
 •St? a 
 
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