Some very remarkable evidence, lately given before the Royal Commission
on Agriculture, is reported in the Times of Monday last. Mr. Albert Pell, sometime M.P. for Leicester- shire, one of the greatest authorities on land in the King- dom, stated that a good deal of the depression was due to the fact that farmers were trying to make a profit out of the very poor land which had much better have been left alone, but which, under the pressure of Protection prices, was brought into cultivation. Prices had dropped everywhere, except for the best qualities of meat, poultry, cheese, and eggs, but so had artificial fertilisers and foreign feeding-stuffs. The remedies for depression, in Mr. Pell's opinion, were "the occupation of the land by the owners, or, failing that, the imparting to the owners a personal knowledge of the methods and practice of farmers." That is sound sense, we do not doubt, but it is very depressing for the non-occupying land- owner. It is an announcement that his place in life is gone.
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