300 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



sharing which did not include the provision that the extra 

 profit earned by the workmen, or at any rate the larger 

 part of such gain, must go into the employing concern, to 

 buy shares in it. In his early days Sir George was not so 

 much of a purist. In Agriculture it would scarcely be 

 possible to apply such a provision with full stringency, 

 more specifically under tenancy. But in Agriculture also 

 there is infinitely less need for it than in industrial employ- 

 ment. For the agricultural labourer has less temptation 

 to fritter his extra earnings away in improvident expendi- 

 ture ; he is in truth by nature too thrifty to do so ; he lives 

 in a different atmosphere from his industrial brother, which 

 discourages that. The extra profits which he earns are 

 likely to be laid by. It would be a good thing if Mr. Strutt's 

 example, and his brother's, Lord Rayleigh's, of sharing profits 

 with agricultural labourers were to be more widely followed. 

 Mr. Strutt, however, is not the only agricultural profit- 

 sharer in this country, not counting Ireland, where Mr, 

 Dermond O'Brien has trod in Lord WaUscourt's footsteps. 

 During the period of scantiness of labour caused by the 

 war several witnesses have come forward in the Times — 

 a paper which has for some years back shown its sympathy 

 with profit-sharing — to report their successful experiences. 

 Thus Mr. Alfred Amos writes from Wye in Kent : 



" I am satisfied with the result. Whereas I often hear com- 

 plaints from farmers that their men are now doing much less 

 work than they used to do ten and twenty years ago, I have no 

 fault to find in this respect ; my men work freely, often suggest 

 new methods by which economies can be practised, and take 

 greater care with stock and the use of implements." 



However, we want something more potent than profit- 

 sharing. And indeed profit-sharing may be made to lead 

 up to that, as the first step towards it. Our man must be 

 placed in a position to occupy a little land of his own and 

 till it for his own profit. There lies his self-employment, 

 such as Sir G. Livesey was anxious for in the case of his 

 gas-workers. There should be time and strength left, 

 after his daily work for his employer, for cultivating that 

 bit of land. The labour bestowed upon it will not wear 



