14 A NEW AGRICULTURAL POLICY 



of cottages, or in the dispensing of the loaves 

 and fishes. Nothing disturbed the even tenor 

 of their ways in the realm of private enterprise. 

 No Labour Union dared to dictate the rate of 

 wages, nor complain of insanitary cottages, nor 

 hint that the land was not being properly 

 cultivated, nor, if he wanted a roof over his 

 head, dared a man suggest the reduction of game. 

 Indeed, the labourer was not averse to game- 

 preserving for, as meat was not plentiful in his 

 larder, and wages were exceedingly low, an 

 occasional rabbit, short or "long-tailed," caught 

 in a surreptitiously placed snare, did not come 

 amiss. The Small Holdings Act of 1908 

 might, it is true, have become a thorn in the 

 flesh of the prosperous farmer, but there were 

 many ways of making it inoperative, and after 

 all, not 1 per cent, of the total number of 

 holdings was taken as small holdings in the 

 first seven years under this Act. 



The landowner bred as many head of 

 pheasants as he chose, the farmer grew what 

 crops he chose — even docks and thistles — let 

 the land down to grass as he chose, paid what 

 wages he chose, worked his men the long 

 customary hours, often without overtime pay- 

 ment, on the strength of an additional gallon 

 of cider or beer, or on the promise of a harvest 

 supper. Viewed from a national standpoint of 

 production we can no longer remain indifferent 

 to the failure or success of the farming industry. 



