ly visionary. 'Visionary,' by the way, is a
very favourite word with so-called practical men. But the stern
logic of figures, of pounds, shillings, and pence, proves that the
present condition of affairs cannot last much longer, and they are
the true 'visionaries' who imagine that it can. This enormous loss
of time, this idleness, must be obviated somehow. It is a question
whether the millions of money at present sunk in agriculture are not
a dead loss to the country; whether they could not be far more
profitably employed in developing manufacturing industries, or in
utilizing for home consumption the enormous resources of Southern
America and Australasia; whether we should not get more to eat, and
cheaper, if such was the case. Such a low rate of interest as is now
obtained in agriculture--and an interest by no means secure either,
for a bad season may at any time reduce it, and even a too good
season--such a state of things is a loss, if not a curse. It is
questionable whether the million or so of labourers representing a
potential amount of force almost incalculable, and the thousands of
young farmers throbbing with health and vigour, eager _to do_, would
not return a far larger amount of good to the world and to
themselves if, instead of waiting for the idle earth at home to
bring forth, they were transported bodily to the broad savannahs and
prairies, and were sending to the mother-country innumerable
shiploads of meat and corn--unless, indeed, we can discover some
method by which our idle earth shall be made to labour more
frequently. This million or so of labourers and these thousands of
young, powerfully made farmers literally do nothing at all for a
third the year but wait, wait for the idle earth. The of strength,
the will, the vigour latent in them is wasted. They do not enjoy
this waiting by any means. The young agriculturist chafes under the
delay, and is eager _to do_. They can hunt and course hares, 'tis
true, but that is feeble excitement indeed, and feminine in
comparison with the serious work which brings in money.

The idleness of arable and pasture land is as nothing compared to
the idleness of the wide, rolling downs. These downs are of immense
extent, and stretch through the very heart of the country. They
maintain sheep, but in how small a proportion to the acreage! In the
spring and summer the short herbage is cropped by the sheep; but it
is short, and it requires a large tract to keep a moderat