It is a question which will interest more millions of the English race on the American continent than these home-islands will ever contain.
There are influences at work which tend to this unhappy issue.

Some of these have been already indicated, and others more powerful still may be mentioned.
Agriculture in England has to run the gauntlet of many pressing competitions, and carry a heavy burden of taxation as it runs.
These will be noticed, hereafter, in their proper connection.
Farming, therefore, is being reduced to a rigid science.

Every acre of land must be put up to its last ounce of production.

Every square foot of it must be utilised to the growth of something for man and beast.

Manures for different soils are tested with as much chemical precision as ever was quinine for human constitutions.
Dynameters are applied to prove the power of working machinery.
Labor is scrutinised and economised, and measured closely up to the value of a farthing's-worth of capacity.