Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1879-07-30

London Letter.
LONDON, July 10th, 1879.

AoNboNs 0ulN Aotut 1917
In recent address Lord Derby ex-
presses the opinion that the present condi-
ton of agricultural depression is not due
to permanent but to temporary causes.
lie thinks that, while with regard to
products that are not perishable-such.
for instance as oereals-America may beat
England in the arena of competition, still,
ain meat, milk and vegetables, and some
other articles of produce, England ought
10 be able to hold her own. Great Britain
has against her cheapness and abundance
of land in other quarters of the globe,
and she has in her favor nearnesS to the
markets, for even ocean steamers will not
reduce tho Atlantic to a mere ferry"
Lord Derby and his class would do well
to look more closely at this aspect of the
problem. 1t is not to bad seasons or low
prices that English farmers must trace
their woes, for l could mention years
when prices and seasons have been pretty
nearly as bad as they are now. The one
novel element in the present distress APP
pears to be that British agriculture is now
for the first time brought into close and
keen competition with foreign husbandry,
in circumstances which give the latter an
absolute advantage. The English food
factory-for Lord Derby correctly describ-
ed farm by that term-has to support
two families, one at least in decent ease
and the other in aflluence and luXury-the
family of the occupier and that of the
owner. The American or Colonial food
factory, on the other hand, has only to
support one family-that of the farmer
in moderate comfort. A concern which
has to pay two profits cannot naturally
run against business only burdened with
one, and that with cheap land, is the plain
reason why the American agriculturist is
running the English farmer. One portion
of Lord Derby's speech leads me TO sus-
pect that some suspicion of this stern
truth crossed his mind, for he asks: Can
we make things better by establishing n
class of cultivators who shall be also free
holders9 In other words, can we mend
matters by creating holdings which will
have to pay not two profits but only one?
1t is hard question to answer, and Lord
Derby can but say that he would like to
see the experiment tried. This, at least,
is to the point. We want, rs he says, no
new law TO initiate iii and if company
of reiormers were to set about buying up
some of the land which is gradually be-
coming u drug in the market, and if they
would then let it out in small holdings we
might put the experiment to the test,
There is no fear that now.a-dayS they
might be met with discouragng sneers
from economists of the almost dcfunct
M'Culoch school. They run no risk of
being denounced rs theorists who would
cover the land with u population of lazy,
drunken starvelings, or with holdings
which would, by initiate subdivision dwin-
die into mere garden-plots. We know too
we'll how thrifty and Industrious peasant
propriotors are in France and Belgium
In the former, so far from producing over
population, the effect Of peasant proprc.
torship is rather to check the neltplica-
ton of the people. So far from growing
a. a., :,
own consumption, peasant propriotors in
the Channel islands get three times as
much food per acre out Of their land us
that got by tenants of large farms in Eng
land. Altogether. however, in respect of
its good sense and thoughtful suggestive
ness, Lord Delby's speech is n most valu-
able contribution to the present controver-
sy.