352 RURAL RECONSTRUCTION 



output taken from the land — as we see in Worcestershire, in Kent, 

 and in some other counties in which small and special cultivation 

 flourishes — does not under such process grow less, though it takes a 

 different form. Quite the reverse ; it grows considerably more 

 ample. How our hop-growing counties used to revel in hop growing, 

 when they still had the British market all to themselves ! We can 

 import hops as we import wheat. There is other produce that 

 cannot be as easily imported, at any rate without loss of quality 

 and value, which fact keeps home-grown stuff in a privileged position. 

 Even in the face of competition from abroad the value of such 

 produce is so great, and the demand for it continues so steadily 

 on the increase, it keeps the soil in such excellent condition and 

 provides employment of a decidedly remunerative kind for so many 

 hands, that its substitution for the more stereotyped varieties of 

 farm produce must be counted a distinct gain. Let war come again 

 — which God forbid that it should— and the land so cultivated will 

 be in all the better heart to produce those heavy crops of wheat 

 that we shall then stand in need of. 



Undoubtedly we want " Better Farming." For that purpose we 

 want more and better education — education of the right type — not 

 the education of schools, colleges or universities only, not the " relish 

 or taste sickened over by learning," but practical education, the 

 suggestions of better practical methods, by means of demonstration, 

 of experiments in which the interest of farmers themselves is enlisted 

 by the home-coming tuition of officers like the American county 

 agents and county representatives, the Belgian agronomes de Vfitat 

 and the Dutch and Danish Jconsulenten, and by the training of the 

 younger generation in " clubs " like the American, in " school fairs," 

 " school gardens " and the like. The result of the last-named form 

 of teaching cannot be instantaneous, but it is sure to be certain, and 

 it is very effective, also very general. It is to farming what certain 

 medicinal cures are to the human body ; it means the rilling of the 

 body with new blood — and better blood. And we want more 

 businesslike farming. That is a matter in the first place, for better 

 accountancy, calculation, reckoning up of cost and return, and 

 appropriate book-keeping ; in the second, of that organisation of 

 which our agriculture stands in pressing need, and which is most 

 effectively secured by well-ordered co-operation. There is individual 

 organisation, of which there is a crying want among us, as in the more 

 economical utilisation of labour, now that its cost has become so 

 heavy, and accordingly much less of it will admit of being employed. 

 There is very much room for retrenchment under that head. Our 



