Land Problems and National Welfare 



there is still room for much improvement. As 

 the beginning of the igth century saw a great 

 movement amongst farmers, due to a large ex- 

 tent to the efforts of that wonderful man, 

 Coke of Norfolk ;* so it is to be hoped that the 

 early years of the 20th century already see the 

 beginning of a movement which will in the end 

 secure the complete organisation of our greatest 

 industry. 



Practical farmers who read this chapter 

 may not agree with all my criticisms, but the 

 staunchest upholder of existing conditions can- 

 not escape from this main fact, that it is the 

 duty of the farmers to feed the nation, and that 

 they are feeding at the present time barely 

 one-half of the population, and, in the case of 

 wheat, only one-fifth. 



If it is the duty of the farmers to feed the 

 people, it must be made reasonably profitable 

 for them to do so ; and clearly it is the duty of 

 those who rule the country so to alter agricul- 

 tural conditions that it will be possible for the 

 cultivators of our soil to perform their duty 

 and feed the bulk of the population, as the 

 cultivators of the soil are now doing in con- 

 tinental countries, whether protected or free. 



* Note. Mrs. Stirling's " Coke of Norfolk " (John Lane) is so in- 

 structive and, in my opinion, so important a contribution to agricul- 

 tural literature that one may hope to see it republished ere long in a 

 cheap edition to enable it to reach a large public, including practical 

 farmers. 



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