Page:Thoughts on the Corn laws, addressed to the working classes of the county of Gloucester.djvu/21

17 in short periods, as from year to year, the supply, and consequently the price, of agricultural produce depends more upon the season than upon the farmer.

An alteration in the system of agriculture may certainly enable corn and cattle to be raised in greater abundance; but improvements in agriculture are not so frequent, or to such vast extent, as those that take place in manufactures. The chief operations in agriculture are performed by nature:—Wheat rises from the seed to the full ear by the agency of nature alone. All that art can assist it in is, by giving it full room to operate in, as by weeding, manuring, draining. It should also be observed, that only those improvements that increase quantity have an effect upon the selling price. If corn could be thrashed cheaper by machinery, there would not necessarily be more corn to be thrashed; and unless a greater quantity of corn be brought to market, there would be no fall in its price. It is true that anything which lowers the cost of bringing corn to market may induce farmers to plough up some lands that could not before be cultivated with profit, and thus the amount raised might be in a small degree increased: but the great saving made by diminishing the cost of producing the thrashed corn, will go into the pocket of the farmer, and ultimately into that of his landlord: for the owner of the soil may take