AGRICULTURAL COMMITTEES 99 



he paid them 6s. or 8s. a week. Ever since 

 then farmers have been brought up on the 

 gospel of Burke. As Cobbett pungently put 

 it : "It was only for the sake of the poor naked 

 devils of labourers. . . . This was the only 

 reason for their wanting corn to sell at a high 

 price ! 



That which farmers might do in 19 19, if they 

 did not get their price, was very frankly dis- 

 played in the most important document which 

 the National Farmers' Union officially presented 

 to the Royal Commission on Agriculture. I 

 will quote from this document two illuminating 

 paragraphs. 



"That which some men did in England 

 during the depression, that which men have 

 always done in the new countries, can be done 

 by men generally in this country if the market 

 drives them to it. They can cut down their 

 fences and lay fields together for mechanical 

 cultivation in large areas ; they can reduce 

 their labour bill while paying high wages at 

 the same time to the men retained ; they can 

 cut down their expenditure on manures applied 

 and cultivations done to increase the fertility of 

 the soil, and at the end of it all, with reduced 

 productivity, and costs even more reduced, they 

 can make their farming (or ranching) pay. 

 Going a stage further, they can lay large areas 

 of the less fertile arable lands down to grass, 

 and in the last resort they can, if necessary, lay 



