Land Problems and National Welfare 



Colonies. They settled on the fertile plains of 

 Canada and on the pasture land of Australia, 

 and laid the foundation-stone for the World- 

 Empire of Great Britain as it exists to-day. 

 The tenant was able to shift the burden on to 

 the shoulders of the landlord. Natural inclina- 

 tion and the peculiarity of the system of letting 

 the land pointed to cattle-breeding. The Eng- 

 lishman is a great lover of animals. A tenant 

 will always apply his energies to the improve- 

 ment of what belongs to him ; he will not invest 

 more of his capital and of his work in land 

 which is not his own than is absolutely neces- 

 sary, but he will use every endeavour to raise 

 the quality of the live stock that is his own 

 property. Hence, therefore, the tiller of the 

 land became a cattle-breeder, who found his 

 pride and his joy in breeding the most perfect 

 animal ; and in this domain the achievement of 

 English agriculture has been magnificent. The 

 English breed of horses is still to-day unrivalled, 

 and the creation of new races of oxen, sheep, 

 and pigs, bred for their meat-giving properties, 

 is a model for the rest of the world. 



" Cattle-breeding, even when carried to per- 

 fection, denudes the land of people. Intense 

 cattle-breeding and intensive cultivation of corn 

 are antitheses ; the one takes away the op- 

 portunity to work, the other provides the op- 

 portunity. Intensive tillage of the land, which 



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