SMALL HOLDINGS 153 



will not be long in becoming useful and worth 

 good wages. 



But the conditions of living must be right. 

 There must be suitable accommodation and the 

 means of studying the whole subject of agri- 

 culture always at hand. Not even in a period 

 of probation should anything like the old dead 

 dullness be possible. Just as each member of a 

 true Army Intelligence Department would take 

 a part of each district in which war might be 

 waged, and obtain complete information of every 

 detail a commander would desire to know, so 

 here the Board of Agriculture should take dis- 

 trict by district in Great Britain, and find out 

 the possibilities and wants of each as a school for 

 farm apprentices and for an agricultural revival. 

 Some expenditure would no doubt be necessary ; 

 but it is difficult to conceive any way in which the 

 State could spend its funds more wisely, nor with 

 better assurance of an early and manifold return. 



It is very largely to these men, as small holders, 

 that we should look for a heavy increase in the 

 national production of food of certain kinds. For 

 example, beet, onions, and potatoes are especially 

 adapted for spade labour, and therefore for pro- 

 duction by men who, though their individual 

 acreage may be small, can, by working together, 

 obtain a great result. 



If the premises stated here and the con- 

 clusions drawn are in the main correct, then the 

 changes and undertakings to be pressed forward 

 are, in the order of their urgency : 



