x PREFACE 



deny it at the official pinch, so that the first need 

 of the prudent official is to violate his first duty, 

 and prudence is always one of the official virtues. 

 The prescriptive density stands unchallenged, 

 while the Treasury pours out gold through the 

 Department for our industrial education, and 

 much more gold through the primary schools for 

 our mental bondage to make the purpose of the 

 Department impossible. In one important aspect, 

 the Department is profoundly instructive : it 

 shows that it cannot instruct, and it reveals the 

 reasons to us, even in spite of official prudence. 

 That is why I give so much space to the Depart- 

 ment in this preface. The rest of the chapters 

 are occupied with matter of more importance. 



Influenced by that impelling spectacle, I have 

 attacked the agricultural problem in my own way, 

 clear outside all the factions, by working a farm 

 scientifically for the profit, strictly conditioned by 

 the necessities of economic production, and in no 

 way dependent on subsidised theory. I have no 

 money for anything like that. I must make a 

 profit or stop, but to make a profit, I must be 

 scientific, and to be successfully scientific, I must 

 be severely practical. The lessons I have to offer 

 are economic data in the concrete. You may 

 pick them up in your hand, look them over, take 

 them to the market, and calculate to a penny 

 what it costs to produce them there. The total 

 result and its derivation are the subject of this 

 book, which cannot be the less value for the 

 exacting conditions of its creation. 



