6 WHAT IS THE LAND QUESTION ? 



would be increased by its being split up 

 among a number of people or by the employ- 

 ment of a larger number of persons on it. 

 There is a hidden condition which is taken for 

 granted in all such calculations — the condi- 

 tion " other things being equal." But in 

 practice they very seldom are, and herein lie 

 many fallacies. The test is economic success. 

 Where small holdings, for instance, are suc- 

 cessful it may fairly be argued that the soil is 

 being put to a better use by the larger number 

 of persons at work on it and the more intense 

 cultivation applied to it. The conditions 

 required for success are, therefore, an impor- 

 tant subject of inquiry. If, on the other 

 hand, small holdings are not successful, while 

 larger ones are, then the interests of agricul- 

 ture cannot be served by artificially stimula- 

 ting an inferior form of cultivation. 



The True Issue. 



If any justification is needed for these intro- 

 ductory remarks it may be found in the 

 accumulating signs that under the guise of 

 the land question subsidiary issues are about 

 to be pressed upon the country and en- 

 veloped in a cloud of confusion in which their 

 bearing on the real point, which is the 

 condition of agriculture as an industry and 

 its contribution to the national economy, is 

 ignored or obscured. The root of the whole 



