FARMING AND FOXHUNTING 



quite so naked in the twentieth ? I hardly think 

 so. If it were, surely there could be some satisfactory 

 machinery set up to correct such conduct without 

 relieving the landlord of so much of his freedom. 



The present machinery whereby a landlord can 

 call to his aid a County Council Agricultural Com- 

 mittee and ask them to issue a certificate to say his 

 " sitting " tenant is not farming the land according 

 to the rules of good husbandry, is to some extent 

 clumsy, and it follows it is seldom used, therefore 

 ineffective. 



I have often thought about the working of this 

 Act when cases have come to my notice where 

 obviously a little discipline exercised by the land- 

 lord would stir up a " sitting " tenant to a little 

 more energy in his farming. Indeed I have often 

 quoted my own case. I pay my landlord j(^i,ioo 

 per annum ; if he wished to disturb me it might 

 cost him even more than this amount if you add 

 to the figure a few odd buildings put up with the 

 landlord's consent ; it might easily be raised to a 

 matter of ^{^2,000, a costly business to dispose of a 

 family sitting on his doorstep. How quickly can I 

 dismiss a disquieting moment when I am reminded 

 by the Agent that a particular fence should be cut, 

 or a field of thistles attended to because they are 

 ripening unto harvest. 



We might well ask : " Have any of us reached the 

 stage of perfection in our farming when we are 

 beyond a mild suggestion that our habits might be 

 cleaner and we should show more regard to meet 

 our farming obligations ? " 



114 



