114 THE MURDER OF AGRICULTURE 



LAND is the staple industry and all others subordinate 



to it. 



We have seen that because we alone, of all countries 

 in the whole world, have attempted to make agriculture 

 subservient to trade and manufactures, we have failed 

 as we deserved to fail. The land is the source of being, 

 the source of wealth ; from it we are taken, to it we must 

 return; without it we cannot live. Man, in making the 

 most of the land, in working it for all it will produce, is 

 but following a natural law, and he who contends 

 against the operation of natural laws, pits his puny 

 strength against a force that is simply irresistible. 



We must cultivate highly every acre that is capable 

 of being cultivated in the kingdom, or we shall fail as 

 signally in the future as in the past. 



There is no escape from this fact! No possibility of 

 evading this law with impunity. 



Will nothing ever arouse the people of this country 

 to a true sense of their position? 



Is there anything under heaven that will awaken them 

 from that fatal sleep which the destruction of their 

 land-industry plunged them into fifty odd years ago? 



Is there any power on earth that will make them 

 understand the simple fact that if they have an industry 

 capable of giving employment and support to twelve or 

 fourteen millions of people, and they muddle it so that it 

 can only employ and support 3,900,000, they have made 

 a shocking mess of their own affairs? 



Will they 7tever understand that unless they work 

 their great national industry on sound, economic 

 and commercial principles, work it for all it is worth. 



