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have done, as indeed they have. In studying 

 this display of energy we learn what we have 

 lost and are losing in food production by leav- 

 ing our most vital industry to the tender 

 mercies of private enterprise, and allowing it 

 to get adrift as a ship without a rudder. 



Let me say first of all that England and 

 Scotland — and especially Scotland — contain 

 some of the finest farmers that are to be found 

 in the whole world. As breeders of shorthorn 

 cattle and of sheep the reputation of individual 

 British farmers is world-wide and needs no 

 defence ; but the virtues of these individuals 

 are not extensive enough to cloak the incom- 

 petence of many of those who occupy the land 

 not only as tenant-farmers, but also as owners. 

 Indeed, in examining these Reports, I find that 

 the worst husbandmen are those who are 

 occupying-owners, which is in itself a damaging 

 criticism of the argument that all would be well 

 with British farming if every one could own the 

 little patch of land he occupies as tenant ! 



We have, it is true, some excellent land- 

 owners who take their profession as seriously 

 as does a doctor of medicine or of divinity, and 

 I am prepared to take off my hat to landowners 

 such as Lord Rayleigh, Lord Bledisloe, Lord 

 Selborne, Mr. Acland, Mr. Buchanan, or Mr. 

 Christopher Turnor, but their unco-ordinated 

 efforts are but backwaters in the turgid stream 

 of our national agricultural life. From a 



