The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4042, 9 February 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1876.

The i Guardian ’ of this morning enters into a calculation of the cost of growing cereals and the difficulties of finding profitable markets for our produce. The conclusion arrived at is one that has been reached by numberless political economists of like class centuries back, in every country where agriculture is followed. One would imagine that farming was altogether an exceptional industry, not subject to the laws which regulate other productive employments, and that those who follow it required special nursing and petting to induce them to give time and labor to it. The fear of the ‘ Guardian ’ is “ it won’t pay ” unless a nartain r»ricft is I'calised. which may be true : the conclusion it arrives at is unu. small farmers .cannot work their land profitably, which we think very likely. As a matter of history, the dealings of Governments with the corn trade are instructive. The fear in early times, say about 1360, was that prices would rise so high, if corn was allowed to be exported, that the population would not be able to buy food. So its export was forbidden and its import freely encouraged. In those days, therefore, the British farmer was not only subjected to Home, but foreign competition. This, however, did not answer the purpose; or, rather, we should judge from subsequent legislation, it bore very hardly upon farmers who succeeded in obtaining liberty to export. Afterwards, exports were prohibited when wheat rose to certain prices, and this policy was continued with variations until the final abolition of the Com Laws in 1846. In the newspaper and pamphlet literature of the period between 1800 and 1846, our contemporary will find an immense number of calculations showing that the farmers of England would inevitably bo ruined whenever the price of wheat fell to 6s a bushel, and that land would go out of cultivation; while others maintained that it could be grown at a cost of 2s 6d per bushel, so that no danger need be apprehended. In the meantime farming went on, and seems to have prospered pretty well considering that the rents paid for the use of land annually amount in many cases to three times the value for the fee simple of land in this Province. Wheu, therefore, our contemporary asserts that our farmer is “ heavily weighted in the price he has to pay for hands to secure his harvest,” he forgets that high as wages may be they add but little to the cost of farming compared with the high rents, rates, and taxes at Home. We are quite prepared to think, however, that to settle people on a few acres of land, in a rude tent or cottage with wife and children, a pig in a stye, and a cow feeding on natural grasses, is not exactly the way in which to secure a well-to-do, intelligent, and moral rural population. New Zealand has to contend in the world’s markets with other Colonies more or less advanced beyond the first rude steps in production. Its Southern Provinces are eminently favorably circumstanced for successful cultivation of cereals. The soil and climate are adapted to their growth, and but little labor is needed in clearing. We believe we are justified in estimating the produce per acre at nearly double that of Victoria, and about three times that of South Australia, while the cost of labor is proportionately to the yield about the same—perhaps somewhat in favor of New Zealand. There is, however, the drawback of a slight inferiority of quality which renders the acceptance of a little lower price necessary. In favor, therefore,

of successful competition in the world s markets are, rich land for almost no tiling, and worked at a comparatively small cost, a genial climate, with ports for export within reasonable distance of the area of production. That small farms are not' likely to pay arises from the necessity that has arisen for employing machinery in agriculture. The small farm will not bear the expense of this. In farming, as in everything else to which machinery can be applied, so far from this being an evil it is a general blessing. Food can be raised and sold at a low price with profit so' long as the area cultivated is sufficiently extensive to keep the machinery employed. The difficulty hitherto has been the cost of carriage to a market through an imperfect road system. Our railroads will supply this need, and give to us every facility for extending our trade with profit to ourselves. But the best and most profitable market is the Home market. To extend this it is only necessary to keep up immigration, and to extend production to other branches of industry, that facility of carriage will enable us advantageously to prosecute. When the main lines are completed, this’ may and will be done, and as little will be heard of unprofitable investments in agriculture as during the last three years. Our contemporary need be under no alarm. The best policy is to allow trade to regulate itself.