The Landowner 



bailiffs and the large salaries paid to them. 



I wanted, then, to find a man capable of 

 effectively superintending the 3,000 acres of 

 land in hand ; I wanted a man who was a first- 

 class scientist and at the same time above the 

 average at the practical details of agriculture, 

 and, more than all, a man who could handle men. 

 After about a year I found a man, the son of 

 a Scotch farmer, educated at the University of 

 Edinburgh and at various Agricultural Colleges. 

 He possessed to the full the first two qualifica- 

 tions, but alas ! his quick Celtic temperament 

 did not make him a success with the sturdy 

 sons of Lincolnshire. 



At the outset it was my object to see which 

 departments of the farm paid, and which did 

 not. With this in view, I got a chartered 

 accountant to tabulate the farm accounts, and 

 it was at once made clear that there was a very 

 heavy loss on beasts : a loss on yearlings, more 

 loss on two-year-olds, and most loss on three- 

 year-olds. So striking and continuous was the 

 loss in this department, one which no possible 

 allowance for manurial value could wipe out, 

 that the accountant — a city man — became much 

 puzzled. He thought that these beasts could 

 hardly be kept for purposes of business, and so 

 he asked if they were all kept as pets ! Sheep, 

 at the time, paid well, and wheat showed a 

 clear profit per acre. But, somehow or other, 



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