INTRODUCTION ix 



would have been of interest to the student of 

 economics has necessarily had to be omitted. In 

 fact, in many of the countries dealt with the 

 agricultural revival now proceeding there is so 

 interesting in itself, and of such importance from 

 the economic standpoint, that a separate volume 

 might be devoted to each of them. There is, 

 indeed, abundant scope to-day for the enterprise 

 of some twentieth -century Arthur Young, who 

 would make a tour du monde in order to fully 

 describe what the following pages can do little 

 more than indicate — the position, namely, of 

 " The New Agriculture, " and the effect thereof 

 on both the material and the social conditions of 

 the peoples of the world. 



Thus the subject has much wider ramifications 

 than any issue as between railway and agricultural 

 interests, and I have here sought to deal with it 

 from the broader as well as from the narrower point 

 of view. Whether or not the conclusions at which 

 I have arrived, as set out on pages 390-1, are war- 

 ranted the reader must say for himself; but in any 

 case the information here brought together, from 

 so many different sources, should prove an ac- 

 ceptable contribution to the available sources of 



