148 A NEW AGRICULTURAL POLICY 



Instead, we shall have a gay company of 

 comrades working in unison. The nightmare 

 of Luddite riots will become as ludicrous a 

 vision as scarecrows. Those cunning bits of 

 iron and steel, endowed as it were with life as 

 they traverse the fields or revolve in the yard, 

 so feared by men in the past, will henceforth 

 become the lively servants and not the masters 

 of those who feed them with oil and petrol. 



On large farms of, say, from 2000 to 10,000 

 acres worked under one management or guild 

 there should be scope for the employment of 

 men and women of scientific attainments who 

 have not only theoretical knowledge but 

 practical experience. Thus we should get what 

 British agriculture has lacked for a hundred 

 years, not only capital, but brains of the highest 

 order. 



It is common knowledge that the cleverest 

 of our young men, whether they be the sons of 

 landowners, farmers, or labourers, leave the 

 land because there seems to be little scope for 

 them if they lack capital. Owing to this want, 

 the best of our young men when they leave 

 agricultural colleges, do not become farmers, 

 but take up posts on rubber and tea plantations 

 abroad, or become land agents or lecturers 

 at home. 



The large farm, communally owned and 

 administered, will give the man whose capital 

 consists of his brains and personality an 



