The Landowner 



lack of an agricultural industry, and the want 

 of protection by the State. Most of the land 

 in England is in the hands of great landlords ; 

 very little of it is owned by farmers. The 

 great estates are divided into separate farms, 

 which, with insignificant exceptions, are let to 

 tenants, and it is the tenant farmer who makes 

 agriculture his vocation. 



" This peculiar system of ownership has 

 proved to have many advantages and many 

 disadvantages, 



" When the agricultural crisis set in in Eng- 

 land after the repeal of the Corn Laws it laid 

 the burden on the less powerful shoulders ; it 

 was responsible for the rapid decline of English 

 agriculture, but it has preserved the State from 

 a baneful catastrophe. Low corn prices re- 

 sulted in a reduction in the value of the land, 

 which means in England that lower rents can 

 be obtained from the farmers ; they reduced as 

 a matter of course the area of the arable land, 

 for only the best class of soil can, by means of 

 its greater productive quality, compete with the 

 new countries. The result was a permanent 

 falling-off in the production of corn and a 

 drifting away of the population. 



*' The crowds of workers found new remunera- 

 tive employment in industry, while the farmers, 

 who were now without means of livelihood, 

 found new homes and better conditions in the 



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