164 THE AGRICULTURAL CLUB. 



to intensive methods of cultivation and to securing better 

 varieties of stock and farm crops." 



" Dairying is one of the corner-stones of the agricultural 

 industry and should be stimulated in the interests of the 

 future well-being of the country." 



" Some one had said there was no hope for British farming 

 until the present farmers were dead, but there was still 

 some hope." 



" The problem of food supplies was an international one, 

 and to attempt to place the agricultural situation in England 

 in a water-tight compartment would be to get up against 

 political difficulties not easy to overcome." 



" A fundamental error had been made during the last 

 hundred years in allowing the labourer to be divorced from 

 a direct interest in the land." 



This collection of " sayings " wise and otherwise has 

 been made haphazard as a sample of the sort of things which 

 men said at the meetings of the Club. In every case it 

 must be remembered that the speaker spoke only for himself. 

 No one spoke in "a representative capacity " and the 

 opinions expressed by one worker, or farmer or landowner 

 might not be shared by any other. I have classified the 

 sayings in groups merely to indicate the point of view of the 

 speaker, but many of them might have been made by any 

 other member of the Club. I remember on one occasion, 

 after two speeches by prominent Labour men, a landlord 

 following them, who exclaimed that it would " do some of 

 the revolutionaries good " to have heard them. Yet a large 

 number of landowners and farmers would regard those two 

 speakers as dangerous revolutionaries. 



Indeed, as I have previously remarked, frank utterance 

 of honest views was expected and obtained. It was well 

 understood that most of the members were associated, mainly 

 in responsible positions, with others for the advocacy and 

 furtherance of certain lines of public action, and it was 

 equally understood that such association is only possible if 

 individuals are willing to waive their personal opinions on 

 many points for the sake of combination for larger ends. 



