THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS TROUBLES.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1791, 17 November 1879, Page 3

THE BRITISH FARMER AND HIS TROUBLES.

Tho following letter appears in tho " Daily News":—Sir, —You wore kind.enough toinaert a letter from me on tho, as I consider, nationally question of the present agricultural deprc3sion. I was then just fresh from a visit to tho Antipodes, and my emphatic advice to the English farmers was to sell out and go with their capital to the splendid agricultural oolony of New Zealand. The large correspondence which has resulted from that communication —proving how extensively the " Daily News " is read even in rural'districts—has only confirmed me in the soundness of my advice. I see no other solid ground of hope for them. It is useless looking for redemption from the Gorverna»nte, be they Tory or Liberal. No Miniitry

can reverse the unalterable operations of the great law of supply and demand. Every year the area of our food supply is enlarging, and, as a consequence, the one hope of our • expensive home farming system, high prices, , getting feebler and feebler. The wistful glances being now directed towards protection are sheer delusion. No Minister—not even a Beaoonsfield—would venture to even hint the monstrous alternative of relieving the English farmer at the expense of the English people. What other hope, then, is there? The Agricultural Commission ? " Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for ho shall not be disappointed." No. The truth had better be fairly faced. Only large capitalists can hope to cope successfully with the pending J oorditions of the English agricultural industry. By tho free employment of lai/our • saving machinery, and the free use .°f chemical agencies, large holdings may be made to pay a fair percentage on the capital embarked, but small farms cannot be micde to pay. As for the hope some of my political friends are indulging from an introduction of the French system

of peasant farming, I feel sure it will prove delusive. I was offered dozens of farms in New Zealand by peasant proprietors who found thomselves masters of a business without the requisite business trainingand capital to carry it on satisfactorily. It is one thing for a man to be a good servant, and quite another thing for him to bo a good master. The one simple effectual remedy is emigration. The labourer has found his panacea in it, and I am more and more convinced, Mr Jas. Howard and his friends notwithstanding, that the English tenant farmer must also find in it the remedy for only too real social evils. After a careful observation of New Zealand's resources, visiting her cities, travelling along her railways, penetrating her forests, dwelling io her homes, worshipping in her churohes, working on her farms, attending her markets and agricultural shows, and in every possible way getting a perfect insight to her position and prospects, I have r<a;hed a tolerably firm conviction respecting her in relation to one English agriculturists, and that is that the sooner they proceed to avail themselves of these splendid possibilities the sooner will there be an end to their present distress. Abthue Ciatdek. 13, Clapham-common-gardens, 8.W., August 27th.