14 



THE HURAL PROBLEM. 



stock undertakings are uncommon in British agriculture, although 

 they are better known in other countries ; and even if the results 

 already shown encourage a few experiments, progress will be slow. 

 A few estate-owners may take land in hand and farm it on business 

 principles — making a change from the too prevalent methods of 

 " landlord farming " of the past. One or two municipalities are 

 farming fairly large areas of land, and others have fairly large 

 estates, which, with a little enterprise, they might farm. But 

 while the process of developing farms of the industrial type may 

 be slow, large farms of another tj^e exist in many districts. These 

 consist of a number of separate farms amalgamated under one 

 management. Often the manager is a poor farmer but " a keen 

 business man," and while the farms are little more than half 

 cultivated, large profits can be made. Here there is too much of 

 what passes for economy of labour and certainly a frequent wastage 

 of land. These farms are not the type of the " industrial farm," 

 but its antithesis, and if no social action is taken to curtail the 

 wastage of land, the tendency may be for this type of farming to 

 increase. The number is already increasing in some areas. 



Apart from the apparent difficulty of securing the establish- 

 ment of " industrialized farms," some criticisms have been levelled 

 at this form of organization. The chief criticism is that it would 

 develop the less favourable side of " industrialism," especially the 

 strife between capital and labour. But there has been trouble 

 about wages for the last fifty years — partly because productivity 

 per man was not sufficient to pay rates equal to the rising standard 

 in urban industry. In that sphere the employment of men in 

 large groups led to the development of those mutual associations 

 — the trade union, co-operative society, and many educational 

 organisations — which mean so much in modern life. Similar 

 conditions would probably lead to similar development in rural 

 districts. And without the gro\\'th of various forms of mutual 

 associations there is no hope for the economic and intellectual 

 emancipation of the rural worker. 



But, as the small and medium-sized farms* will long remain 



* SIZE OF FARMS. 



The siees of existing holdings in England and Wales are as follows : — 



with us, measures must be considered for improving production on 

 those units. There are three methods which may be employed : 



