FARMING, PAST AND FUTURE 85 



Again, there is among us a certain class of men 

 Avho work very much better as their own masters 

 {or slaves) than as someone else's men, and yet have 

 not the gift to command others. These are sufficiently 

 numerous for it to be wise of us to cater for them ; it 

 is, I believe, imperative to do so if individuality one 

 of the greatest of our countrymen's gifts is not to be 

 driven out of the agricultural labouring class. The 

 pity of it is that in the past so little discrimination 

 has been shown, when letting small-holdings, between 

 the class of man I have tried to describe and the man 

 who wants a holding of his own because he does not 

 want to work either as master or man! 



Again, it would seem that certain localities are so 

 favourable to spade- as against plough-husbandry as 

 to let small-holdings come naturally: these, I need 

 hardly say, I should not suggest disturbing. 



But over and above all, we must have enough small- 

 holdings to let our good men get through and become 

 masters. Many such potential captains of industry 

 would be kept back had they to wait till they had 

 saved out of their wages enough capital to take a 

 large farm. The great army of agriculture cannot 

 afford to risk losing its best " rankers", and to my 

 mind an adequate supply of small-holdings is neces- 

 sary as a training school and as a step-ladder. 



The foreman, head wagoner, cow-man, shepherd, 

 &c., on large farms would be more likely to give 

 good service to their masters if they all felt that the 

 possibility of securing a holding of their own was a 

 matter of practical politics. Many would never take 

 advantage of the possibilities, but some would do so, 

 and remain useful small-holders all their lives. One 

 can, however, confidently foresee that among those 

 who start the best would get on, and become recruits 

 for the class of really useful large farmers who are 



