96 THE AGRICULTURAL CLUB. 



sections of the industry, namely, the farmer and the labourer. 

 In the past, there has been little regard paid to the position 

 of the labourer, and even in modern times nobody seems to 

 have any idea when speaking of scientific education that it 

 has any reference to the labourer. I cannot see how even the 

 best schemes can succeed unless the component parts play the 

 parts properly allotted to them, and labour must have a position 

 which has never yet been allotted to it. Unless the labourer is 

 efficient and thereby enabled to enter into his task properly in 

 order to get the best results, then it will not be possible for 

 Agriculture to flourish. The labourer's present position is 

 entirely due to his own efforts, and he will not depart from 

 what he has gained without a great amount of resistance, and 

 I think we are bound to consider the position of Agriculture 

 more from the point of view of the labourer than has hitherto 

 been the case. 



In the course of his paper Mr. Smith expressed doubts 

 whether either the adoption of co-operation, as advocated 

 by Mr. Leslie Scott and others, or the general establishment 

 of small holdings, provided a solution of the Land problem. 

 Small holdings, he observed, " are only possible in certain 

 parts of the country," and could not form the main basis 

 of the agricultural industry. Nor did he favour individual 

 ownership. Differing on this point from Mr. Lennard, 

 who cited Russia as evidence that peasant proprietorship 

 did not prevent revolution, Mr. Smith considered that 

 ownership developed " a type of person who is conservative 

 in the extreme," one who, owing to his restricted position, 

 " looks upon change or development in any direction in a 

 hostile frame of mind." 



I remember remarking on one occasion that as all roads 

 lead to Rome so all the discussions at the Club, on whatever 

 subject, led sooner or later to small holdings. This of 

 course was an exaggeration, but it was of interest to note 

 how frequently this subject cropped up, and how, whenever 

 it was introduced, it never failed to " draw " certain of the 

 members. On this occasion Mr. Smith's views were 

 challenged by several speakers. Mr. Haman Porter dwelt 

 on the satisfaction which the small holder had in a piece of 

 ground he could call his own, and expatiated, as he fre- 

 quently did, on the in-bred love of the land which animated 



