THE STATE OF AGRICULTURE.
[To THZ EDITOR or THZ SPECTATOR."]
Sra,—In. would be a matter of great interest to many agricultural readers if your correspondent "A J.P." (Spectator, November 21st) had indicated in his letter the particular district of the country he bases his conclusions upon as to the remarkably successful farming he writes of. To me, living in a part of England, not a clay district, where the farmer is not having the extraordinarily good time your correspondent makes out, his remarks suggest that either he is a townsman who knows nothing either of the ownership or cultivation of the soil, or else he bases his facts on the yield of the market-gardens outside a large town, In opposition to his contention, I can affirm from an intimate acquaintance with farmers cultivating something like a. hundred and fifty thousand acres of land, situated some twenty-five or thirty miles from a large town, that no farmer in this district has during the last ten years, living expenses included, averaged ten per cent. on his capital. I wonder in what other walk of life a man who puts all his time and thought and risks his money as the farmer has to would be content with such remuneration. It is such letters as that of "A J.P." that have produced the "land hunger" and the Small Holdings Act, and I am expecting to live long enough (if only five or six years) to see many an adventurous small holder, with his capital exhausted, pleading the "hard times" in the Bankruptcy Court.—I am, Sir, &c.,
NOT A. FARMER.
[That there will be many disappointments caused by the Small Holdings Aot we do not doubt, but that does not dis- prove the statement that competent farmers can, and do, make a good living throughout England. If it were not so, would there always be a sufficient number of solvent applicants for every farm in decent order as soon as it becomes vacant ? A farm is not a gold mine, but, for that matter, neither is any other trade or profession. Honestly worked, however, by a man who knows his business, it will yield a healthy and agree- able living.—ED. Spectator.]
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