58 A NEW AGRICULTURAL POLICY 



by moonlight, and the County Agricultural 

 Committee did eventually order 230 acres to 

 be ploughed ; but you cannot expect patriotic 

 plutocrats busy building ships to have time to 

 attend to Cultivation Orders ; and what is a 

 fine of ^50, which he had to pay for neglect- 

 ing to carry out the Orders, to a man of Lord 

 Pirrie's wealth ? He still remains in possession 

 of an estate from which he has erased 5 

 farms. After all, was he not a benefactor to 

 his poorer brethren ? Did he not build a 

 house for the curate ? 



Those who care to plough through the 

 minutes and evidence of the Royal Commission 

 on Agriculture, evidence given entirely by 

 farmers, will find sufficient proof, without my 

 stressing the point, that a great deal of the 

 land of England and Scotland, even at a time 

 when Agricultural Executive Committees were 

 in full swing, and Inspectors and Land Com- 

 missioners were swarming over the countryside, 

 was being ill-cultivated. The reason given 

 naturally varied. Some alleged that it was 

 due to the sporting proclivities of the owners ; 

 some that it was owing to the impoverishment 

 of the landowners, who could no longer repair 

 buildings, gates, fences ; some put it down to 

 the defective arterial drainage ; and so on, and 

 so forth. Whatever the reason adduced, the 

 fact remains that private enterprise working 

 under inspectorship, as when working uncon- 



