WHEN AGRICULTURE GOES ALLL GOES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 566, 10 May 1913, Page 2

WHEN AGRICULTURE GOES ALLL GOES.

Some suggestive observations on the importance of agriculture ara contained in an article in that well-known paper La Revue Economique. The great importance of the part played in the economic life of nations by the culture of what has been brought out prominently by the results of an inquiry conducted under the control of the Minister of Agriculture. Thm, for instance, it is calculated that in the northern hemisphere alone the production of cereals amounts to more than 314,000,000 tons, while the manufacture of iron represents 64,000,000 tons. It is shown that of all industries agriculture is the most important and the chief factor in the economic development of the world. It is a matter of regret that men of business, and especially men interested in finance are apt to overlook the preponderating influence exerted every year by the harvests. Yet from the produce of the harvests depends the means which will ne at th<3 disposal of all those connected with the soil to purchase manufactures, and, as a consequence industrial activity is dependent on agricultural Drosperity, and similarly mercantile prosperity is dependent on both. Thus the abundant maize crop in the United States resulted in a big demand for trucks and railway engines, giving rise to activity in several other industries. On the other hand, if the harvest is poor, the farmers and labourers have little to spend, and their limited outlay is felt through the whole world of business

It is therefore both a patriotic duty and true wisdom on the part of statesmen to do evertyhing possible to encourage agriculture and to make it a flourishing industry.