366 AWAKENING OF ENGLAND. 



room for the large farmer, so long as he farms 

 efficiently ; but were I autocrat of this Realm 

 I would penalise the large farmer who farmed 

 so badly that the whole nation as a body 

 politic had to suffer for it. The landowner 

 has power to get rid of a bad tenant — why, 

 then, should not the State take over land 

 which is going derelict ? It is nothing novel 

 for the Crown to sequester large estates 

 for a mere political whim ; why, then, should 

 not the State intervene to save, as it were, 

 its heart's blood from being drained ? 



Such farms when acquired by the State at 

 their market price could be worked for national 

 purposes — for breeding horses, for raising beef 

 and mutton, or growing corn for our army 

 and navy. 



The question of rural education I have 

 dealt with in the chapter devoted to handicraft, 

 and I do not think that I need to stress the 

 points at issue, for it seems to me that our 

 Government are more alive to the develop- 

 ment of rural education than to other forms of 

 agricultural development. In July 1911 we 

 learn than no less than £325,000 is to be 

 advanced from the Development Fund up to 

 March 31, 1916, to aid and form Farm 



