Professor Wrightson sends a good letter to Thursday's Times on
the tendency of agriculturists to regard the price of grain as the main element in their failure or success. He thinks, on the contrary, that in times when grain is so cheap, and certain to remain cheap, the right policy is to calculate the cost of breeding live-stock as the main element of success, and he asks why it will not answer to feed live-stock on cheap grain when it did once answer to feed live-stock on dear grain. If it paid to buy linseed-cake at £12 a ton for the live-stock, it surely ought to answer to buy it at 26 a ton, especially as the price of live-stock has not gone down with the price of grain. It certainly seems reasonable for the farmer, if he cannot sell his produce at a profit, to use it in feeding creatures which he can sell at a profit ; and that is what Professor Wrightson recommends.
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