Land Problems and National Welfare 



it is depressing to think of the number of 

 smaller farmers that such a man necessarily 

 deprives of good homes and holdings. The 

 tenant farmer must take a wider view of the 

 land problem ; he must realise that the land 

 must be put to the best use for the nation ; that 

 it does not exist simply to fatten farmers of the 

 twenty-two thousand acre class. Above all, the 

 large farmers, who form associations and meet 

 together in clubs and who consequently are 

 most in the public eye, must remember that 

 one half of the total number of the farmers of 

 England are men who hold less than 50 acres 

 of land ; they must realise that it is the average 

 men who set the standard of agriculture in the 

 country, and so they — these large farmers — 

 should feel themselves morally bound to aid all 

 measures that will benefit the average farmer. 



Sixty or seventy years ago the Danish system 

 of land tenure closely resembled ours, but now 

 82% of the occupiers own their farms — the re- 

 maining 12% being tenants, chiefly very large 

 farmers. All classes of agriculturists seem to 

 be satisfied and content — the farmer, whatever 

 the size of his farm ; the landowner, who has 

 retained as much land as he wants ; and es- 

 pecially the labourer, who has generally a small 

 holding of his own. 



In England only 12% of the farmers own the 

 holdings they cultivate. This is altogether too 



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