Land Problems and National Welfare 



diplomatic service. Such an exotic experience 

 as mine must tend to make a landowner less in- 

 clined to accept the existing order of things as 

 immutable, especially in directions where change 

 would clearly benefit the country. 



The opinion that land cannot be made to 

 pay ; that land is a bad investment ; that the 

 individual estate, if a purely agricultural one, 

 only just pays its expenses, is the root of much 

 evil. This opinion is, I fear, held by the majority 

 of landowners, and it accounts to a great extent 

 for the attitude of the larger proportion of my 

 countrymen towards land. 



I can only say again that I firmly believe that 

 what continental landowners have done with 

 their estates English landowners could do also, 

 if they would give their minds to it. 



And let me add one word to those rich men 

 from the cities who buy land to enjoy its 

 amenities, and spend happy days in shooting : 

 cannot they also study the economic side of the 

 question, and the high responsibility of their 

 stewardship ? For to my mind the owner of 

 land is to a greater extent a steward than the 

 owner of wealth in any other form. These men 

 to whom I am referring could do much to intro- 

 duce intensive methods of cultivation. They 

 have money at their disposal, they have had a 

 business training ; and if in the process their 

 shooting should be somewhat curtailed — well, 



38 



