FARMING, PAST AND FUTURE 89 



community. I have had about 700 long-course 

 students under my instruction in husbandry; I have 

 known, intimately enough to judge their capabilities, 

 quite another 500 gentlemen farming our land, yet I 

 cannot, after careful thought, bring to mind a dozen 

 men capable of running an "industrial farm" of 

 5000 acres in such a way that every field should be 

 doing its fair quota towards feeding this very thickly 

 populated country of ours. It takes an exceptionally 

 good man to farm 1000 acres thoroughly; 500 inten- 

 sively done is quite enough for the man usually 

 spoken of as just above the average. 



It is to these latter that I look to for help in the 

 future. The strategy should be to train such men so 

 that they take full advantage of co-operation. They 

 must learn to take advantage of all the experience of 

 the past which includes avoiding the errors of the 

 past to supervise science in such a way that agri- 

 culture may derive the fullest possible benefit from 

 research ; and also to be ready to criticize, without 

 carping at, all that systematic investigation lays before 

 the farmer. Further, they must learn all the better 

 if self-taught to co-operate as regards the use of 

 labour-saving machinery, such as traction steam 

 tackle, motor-ploughs, threshing-engines, and the 

 like. They must also learn to be more careful as 

 regards studying the markets, account-keeping, saving 

 unnecessary losses, and reducing all excessive middle- 

 men's profits. Last, but not least, they must learn 

 to know their fellow men, so that, on the one hand, 

 they may make good tenants themselves, and so bring 

 more capital on to the land, while, on the other hand, 

 they may secure for their own advantage the services 

 of a devoted peasantry working to their own satisfac- 

 tion for the furtherance of the greatest possible home 

 production. 



