6 LAND REFORM 



Landlords have seen their rents reduced to the lowest 

 point ; tenants have lost their capital ; labourers have 

 been driven from the land ; and the whole community 

 is suffering socially, economically, and physically from 

 the decay of agriculture. No doubt it will be urged 

 that there are other causes of the decay of agriculture, 

 but an attempt will be made to show that those causes 

 would not have existed but for the land system 

 referred to, and that they cannot be removed so long 

 as that system lasts. 



Another serious question in this connection is that 

 of our food supply. The large and yearly increasing 

 area of land laid down in so-called permanent pasture 

 ("tumbling down" to rubbish would be a better de- 

 scription so far as much of it is concerned) is a 

 serious and progressive reduction in the self-feeding 

 power of the nation, because, as Adam Smith re- 

 marks, "a cornfield of moderate fertility produces a 

 much greater quantity of food for man than the best 

 pasture of equal extent." The area under corn crops 

 in this country is not only extremely small, but it does 

 not yield to its full capacity. Sir James Caird re- 

 marked, some years ago, " People are surprised that 

 so large a proportion of cultivated land is still per- 

 mitted to remain partially productive." But there is 

 no ground for surprise. A good tenant farmer, from 

 a love of his calling, and to the extent of his means, 

 does justice to the land; but he has no encouragement 

 to do so. On the contrary, the system under which he 

 works justifies the description frequently given of it 

 as " a premium on bad farming."^ 



* It is frequently stated that the average yield of corn per acre in 

 Great Britain is larger than that in any other country in Europe. This 

 statement is true, but it is a misleading one. No fair comparison is 



