The Farmer 



methods of cultivation — particularly on the 

 220,000 small farms now existing in England — 

 the total quantity of home-grown foodstuff 

 could finally be increased two-fold. To secure 

 this end great changes are necessary : more 

 small farms and small owners must be created. 



But I hear the commonplace platitude being 

 thrust at me : the English system of land tenure 

 is the best in the world, and the relations between 

 landlord and tenant are so happy that tenants 

 would not become owners even if they could. 

 No one more than I would deprecate the destruc- 

 tion of the system of landlord and tenant, but 

 — like the House of Lords — the system wants 

 mending and not ending. Evils have crept in — 

 to a great extent during the period of acute 

 agricultural depression — and must be eradicated; 

 and, a matter of even greater importance, the 

 system needs bringing up to date to meet the 

 requirements of the times. 



Quite recently, at an important meeting of 

 the Farmers' Club, Mr. Anker Simmons read a 

 paper upon the question of Ownership versus 

 Tenancy. 



He said that the question was in reality an 

 economic one, and that it was deplorable that 

 it should be made a political matter at all. He 

 then proceeded to argue in favour of the system 

 of tenancy as opposed to that of ownership. 



The paper was most carefully prepared, and 



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