258 RURAL DENMARK 



their estates, and in these circumstances he thought it 

 would be for the general advantage if the tenants were 

 assisted to become the owners of their holdings. He 

 expressed his confident belief that by more intensive 

 methods and by bringing into cultivation land which was 

 now lying practically idle, this country could be made to 

 produce ;ioo,ooo,ooo more food than at present." 



Here, then, if I err, are two witnesses who err 

 with me, and such testimony might be indefinitely 

 multiplied. But I am as sure as we can be of any- 

 thing in this fallible world that I do not err. Let any 

 competent agriculturist who has doubts hire a motor 

 car and drive through our heavy-land districts and 

 there observe for himself. He will find hundreds 

 of acres in a parlous state, and if he looks into the 

 buildings attached to them he will find but a half, 

 a third, a fifth perhaps, of the stock that those acres 

 would be carrying in Denmark or even in some other 

 districts of our own country. 



With certain exceptions, in such districts it is not 

 the English land but its treatment which is at fault. 



Many tenants also have a habit of taking far larger 

 farms than they have either the capital, the energy, or 

 sometimes the skill to manage. Often enough the man 

 with about ^1000 in cash, who should be content with 

 about 100 acres, burdens himself with 200 or 300, and 

 so on, with the result that, owing to insufficient equip- 

 ment, labour, and manure, his crops are wretched, while 

 his stock, upon which perhaps some bank or dealer has 

 a lien, is totally inadequate. Or perhaps all or nearly 

 all his capital is borrowed. 



It may be asked why a farmer of this class acts 

 so foolishly. The question is not altogether easy to 

 answer, but I will hazard one or two replies. Some- 

 times he hopes that a few lucky seasons may put 



