LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE LIBERAL REMEDY FOR AGRICULTURAL DISTRESS.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTLIOR."]
SIR, —Your article, " The Liberal Remedy for Agricultural Distress," in the Spectator of May 18th, is particularly valuable at the present time, because both landlords and tenants are making vigorous efforts to bring our farming system into line with the requirements of the age, and because it is absolutely certain that any State interference with land-tenures would tend to arrest the progress that is now taking place. There is only one sentence to which, as an agriculturist of long and extensive experience, I would beg leave to demur. You say towards the close of the article, " We entirely admit that, in the present condition of agriculture, unusual remedies may be required." I venture to assert that any such admission is likely to do harm, because it would have the effect of encouraging the belief that anything the State could do would remedy or alleviate the world-wide causes from which our agriculture, and indeed all agriculture, is suffering, whereas the only possible allevia- tion is to be found in a general recognition that all we can do is to alter our system, as far as we can, so as to enable it best to contend with existing circumstances. To admit that it is possible that the State can do anything for land—except, per- haps, lending money to landlords and farmers at a low rate of interest to enable them to carry out permanent improvements —would simply be to retard the adoption of the agricultural modifications that have now become necessary. For the same reason I equally deprecate the idea that the remedy for agricultural distress, or, in other words, low prices, is to be found in Bimetallism ; for, shuffle the cards as we may, foreign cheapness of production, and the abundance or scarcity of articles, must rule prices. Amongst the articles I produce are wool, coffee, and cardamoms. If the scarcity of gold governed the situation, then all three ought to have fallen in price. But this is not so. Wool is low in price because it has been over-produced, coffee high because it has not been over-produced, and cardamoms have largely fallen in price because they have been over-produced. I would, then, most strongly urge landlords and farmers not to look for one moment to any State measures, but to set to work and remodel the agricultural system, so as to bring it into harmony with the existing state of things. This we are doing in Scot- land, confidence is being restored, farms can now be rapidly relet and sometimes at higher rents. It is perfectly true that farming is being carried on at a very low rate of profit; but farmers are now beginning to recognise the fact that they are suffering from world-wide causes; that, after all, they are no worse, and in some cases better, off than farmers in other countries, and that their sole resource lies in their own intelligence and industry. To encourage the idea that the State could aid them is simply to discourage the only aid they can ever have to rely on to help them out of their present difficulties,—their own efforts.—I am, Sir, &a., Clifton Park, Ktlso, May 21st. Rom= H. ELLIOT.
[We are quite in agreement with our correspondent, and only put in the proviso to which he objects in order to express forcibly our idea of the necessities of agriculture.— ED. Spectator.]
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