WHAT OF THE HARVEST? 311 



upon to pay heavily for the footing on the land for which 

 they have fought. They will find, as Mr. Joseph Fels did 

 at Mayland in Essex, that the acquisition of land for small 

 holdings inevitably means the growth of a golden harvest 

 for the surrounding landlords. And although the approved 

 ex-soldier may be granted land in his own county, the cot- 

 tage with an acre, or even half an acre, attached, which he 

 desires to possess in his own village, remains as elusive as 

 ever. Already the Ministry of Agriculture is discouraging 

 County Councils creating isolated holdings in villages 

 and thereby defeating one of the features of the Land 

 Settlement (Facilities) Act. 1 No doubt it is wiser to en- 

 courage colony making, but why make the special promises 

 and special provisions unless it is intended to carry them 

 out ? Discharged soldiers now recall with bitter reflec- 

 tions the recruiting posters of a picturesque cottage, a 

 meadow and an orchard, with the alluring legend, " Is 

 this worth fighting for ? " 



Controversy in the late summer and autumn of 1919 

 in the agricultural world raged round the Hours of Employ- 

 ment Bill. The ways of the Government in regard to this 

 Bill were conducted behind a veil of mystery. Farmers 

 had declared vociferously that they must know what the 

 future agricultural policy of the Government was before 

 they could plan the cultivation of their farms. One would 

 have thought that the sense of " insecurity " under which 

 they smarted, as farm after farm was thrown into the 

 auction market, derived from the tenuous hold they had on 

 the land, rather than from any other cause. 



However, a Royal Commission on Agriculture was insti- 

 tuted on which, excepting the Coal Commission, for the 

 first time Labour representatives were asked to sit. Har- 

 assed by the importunities of his landowning friends, who 



1 Besides permitting the acquisition of holdings of less than an acre 

 (half-an-acre) this Act contains this useful clause : " The Council of any 

 borough, urban district or parish may purchase any fruit trees, seeds, 

 plants, fertilizers or implements required for the purposes of allotments 

 cultivated as gardens, whether provided by the Council or otherwise, and 

 sell any article so purchased to the cultivators, or, in the case of imple- 

 ments, allow their use, at a price or charge sufficient to cover the cost of 

 purchase." 



