ioo A NEW AGRICULTURAL POLICY 



the whole country down to grass, and English 

 agriculture can become once more a primitive 

 pastoral industry. 



11 All this can be done, step by step, as 

 necessity dictates, but it is important to re- 

 member that it will not bring disaster either 

 to the farmer or to the worker. Farming can 

 be carried on profitably even under the extreme 

 conditions imagined above, and labour can be 

 paid high wages at the same time. But it 

 must be borne very seriously in mind that in 

 proportion as market conditions force this 

 policy upon the controllers of the industry, so 

 will production and employment be reduced. 

 Every successive change in the downward 

 direction will reduce the output of wealth from 

 the soil, and will reduce the number of the 

 rural population. Some of them, both farmers 

 and workers, will be crowded out, but it will 

 not bring ruin to the farmers nor destitution to 

 the farm workers that remain." 1 



It must be borne in mind that this manifesto 

 was presented to us as late as the 23rd Sept- 

 ember 1 9 19, and the gentleman who had to 

 defend it was a member of a County Council, 

 and the chairman of its Small Holdings Com- 

 mittee. I state this without casting the slightest 

 reflection upon him individually, or impugning 

 his public spirit. The document only shows 



1 Minutes of Evidence, Royal Commission on Agriculture, 

 vol. iii. 



