466 A FARMER'S YEAR 



The next question is : What will be the effect upon the large towns 

 towards which the migration flows, and especially upon London ? I 

 have from time to time been credited with some powers of imagination, 

 but I confess that they fail me when I think of this England of ours, 

 spotted with huge overgrown cities, surrounded each of them by 

 market gardens, and beyond by great stretches of what in Africa we 

 should call veld, that is unimproved or scarcely improved country, 

 broken here and there by the mansions of rich colonials or city men, 

 encircled by their areas of sporting lands. Yet appalling and in some 

 ways almost ludicrous as is the picture, it is one that human eyes may 

 see unless the country folk cease rushing to the towns, and agriculture 

 once more becomes a paying pursuit, or rather, unless this last happens, 

 since all these questions hinge upon the prosperity or non-prosperity of 

 the agricultural interests. 



Behind these which I have touched upon remains the largest 

 question of all. What will be the effect upon the national health and 

 physique, and, therefore, upon the national character, of the trans- 

 planting of the sturdiest classes of our inhabitants, the dwellers in the 

 rural districts, from their wholesome country homes to the crowded 

 courts of sweltering cities ? I dare say that the immediate result has 

 been exaggerate* 1 by some thinkers and writers, for the stamina of 

 the race will hold out against the influence of surroundings for one 

 generation, or perhaps for two. But, by way of example, look at the 

 pure-bred Cockney I mean the little fellow whom you see running 

 in and out of offices in the City, and whose forefathers have for the 

 last two generations dwelt within a two-mile radius of Charing Cross. 

 And then look at an average young labourer coming home from his 

 day's field work, and I think that you will admit that the city breeds 

 one stamp of human beings, and that the country breeds another. 

 They may be a little sharper in the towns, but after all it is not mere 

 sharpness that has made Great Britain what she is, it is the thews 

 and sinews of her sons which are the foundation of everything, and 

 the even, healthy minds that dwell in healthy bodies. Take the 

 people away from their natural breeding and growing grounds, thereby 

 sapping their health and strength in cities such as nature never 

 intended to be the permanent homes of men, and the decay of this 

 country becomes only a question of time. In this matter, as in many 

 others, ancient Rome has a lesson to teach us. That is why this 

 question of the depopulation of the country is a question of national 

 interest. 



