a few steps were taken till now in the proper direction. and none of them was taken with a sufficient energy. Society at large remains indifferent to the needs of British agriculture.
It must not be forgotten that the competition of American wheat has made the same havoc in the agriculture of most European countries — especially in France and Belgium; but in the last two countries the adaptations which were necessary to resist the effects of the competition have already taken place to a great extent. Both in Belgium and in France the American imports gave a new impetus toward a more intensive utilisation of the soil, and this impetus was strongest in Belgium, where no attempt was made to protect agriculture by an increase of the import duties, as was the case in France. On the contrary, the duties upon imported wheat were abolished in Belgium precisely at the time when the American competition began to be felt — that is, between 1870 and 1880.
It was not only in England that the fall in the prices