THE AGRICULTURAL SITUATION IN ENGLAND.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1095, 24 February 1893, Page 5

THE AGRICULTURAL SITUATION IN ENGLAND.

The agricultural depressbn in Great Britain is occupying the attention of landholders and farmers to the exclusion of every other public question. As the question is not without interest to the New Zealand agriculturist and exporter, the following extract from a letter by ‘A County Squire ’ to the London Times, under date December 20th, will prove acceptable. After reviewing former periods of agricultural depression, the writer concludes as follows

* But some of your agricultural readers may say, “ What’s the good of all this ancient history to us 1 Give us a remedy and we will thank you ; but don’t try and comfort us by saving that things have just been as bad before.” Well, I must confess I have no remedy to propose—neither an “ heroic " remedy in the shape of a protective duty of 3Os; nor a “quack” remedy, in the shape of bimetallism ; nor a drastic remedy, in the shape of legislative interference between landlord and tenant. The objection to the first is that, for every sore it closed, it would open a thousand ; to the second, that it would be either futile or dishonest; to the third, that any attempt to introduce the Irish land system into England would drive landlords either to sell their farms or to manage them themselves. No landlord, with a grain of self-respect, would submit to it. On the other hand, when it is asked whether this country can continue to grow wheat; the answer is, it depends upon the soil and the seasons. We have latterly had a cycle of bad seasons, and much land is still nnder wheat whith, in ordinary times, cannot be cultivated at a profit, Speaking as an occupier of more than 2000 acres, I should say that no land should be trusted, to grow wheat which cannot be expected to yield on an avorage from four and ahalf quarters to five quarters per acre, I have grown seven under exceptional circumstances. Of course, even in so bad. a year a? this there are bits of comfort. With moderately good hay at £4 10s or £5 a ton, and good wheat straw at £3;. the farmer who i 3 fortunate enough topossess a stock of those commodities has something to fall back upon. But I look upon the wheat-growing question na one of secondary importance. By all meansgrow as much as there is suitable laud l for—that is, land which can compete with,, the best lands of other countries. But the cry that Great Britain should grow enough corn for her own population is simply absurd. With a population rapidly approaching4o,ooo:ooos she cannot, under the raoßt favourable circumstances, grow enough for half. She must be dependent upon other countries ; and she must take effectual means, to safegard her foreign supplies, even in case of war. Meanwhile, with a teeming

population and a limited area, land is not likely permanently to diminish in value. There are other uses for it besides that of growing wheat, which it must be left to the good sense of both owners and occupiers to discover. The only thing thoy have lo dread is State interference in any shape.’