TEACHING THE CULTIVATORS 69 



poor, unproductive husbandmen. To infuse into them a spirit of 

 inquiry, of thirst for knowledge, in the place of the old torpid in- 

 difference, a zeal for doing well, and making the most of their 

 acreage, would be worth a hundred times more than forming associa- 

 tions which the Americans, more honest in this matter than our- 

 selves, rightly call only " companies," the spirit which governs 

 them being not the truly co-operative, but the joint-stock spirit 

 aiming purely at " business." I would ask the question : Are we 

 to remain rigidly wedded to our old ways, to which we have so long 

 been faithful, with a result which is now recognised as inade- 

 quate and disappointing ? There is not much prospect of recon- 

 struction in working with such out-of-date tools. Farming is a 

 matter, if in its results of national, certainly in its pursuit of indivi- 

 dual interest. To the farmer it is a " business proposition." It is 

 in every case the individual who makes the success or the failure of 

 his farm. Wherever he is intelligent, bright, open to new ideas, 

 observant, and possesses the required means, he makes a success of 

 the calling, sometimes a very brilliant success. By the side of such 

 up-to-date farmers there are, unfortunately, a host of others, who 

 cannot make more out of their land than will just keep them going. 

 And then they complain that times are bad, that rents are high, and 

 that the consumer must be taxed by a protective duty for their want 

 of intelligence. The fault lies with himself. But to prove that to 

 him, and to induce and stimulate him to do better, we must bring 

 him to understand where the fault lies. The Danes have dis- 

 covered the way to do better and have turned it to account to excel- 

 lent purpose. Belgians, Dutch, French have followed them on the 

 path thus shown. And eventually our cousins and nearer kinsmen 

 across the Atlantic have come in to put the instrument of which the 

 quality had been so well proved to wider, more vigorous and more 

 systematic use. In all these examples has there been no "Go and 

 do thou likewise " for us 1 



