AGRICULTURAL COMMITTEES 105 



corner of Yorkshire, a spot in Lincolnshire, 

 one or two other Arcadias, as well as to the 

 County Council small holdings. Yet these 

 self-governing little colonies are but backwaters 

 in the great stream of agricultural life. This 

 glimpse is as if one were looking at life through 

 the leper's squint. 



It will be noticed that I am giving no place 

 to the landowner, qua landowner, on either the 

 County Committee or the National Council. 

 This is not due to any prejudice I may be 

 supposed to possess against landowners. As a 

 fellow-citizen, I prefer landowners to farmers, 

 for they are better educated, have wider cul- 

 ture, and are more catholic in their tastes. They 

 are broader minded with regard both to religion 

 and politics ; but, unfortunately, as Mr. F. D. 

 Acland, a landowner himself, says, there are 

 very few of his own class who put in eight, 

 or even six hours a day, at the business of 

 managing an estate in the same way as a 

 manufacturer has to do in supervising his 

 works. 



At first I was inclined to imitate the constitu- 

 tion of Lord Selborne's short-lived National 

 Agricultural Council, on which I sat as a 

 member, and make the controllers of the agri- 

 cultural industry consist of landowners, farmers, 

 and farm workers, but drastic changes in land 

 ownership have taken place since 19 18, and the 

 farmer in many counties is indistinguishable from 



