304 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



Nation, which has seen its land produce much less than it 

 should. The labourer in a town has a choice of firms and 

 of other forms of employment besides his own. The rural 

 labourer, in his comparative isolation, having long distances 

 to count with, and the difficulty about a lodging ever 

 pressing upon him, is in this respect badly off. The only 

 competing form of employment open to him thus far has 

 been such as takes him away, either from his calling and 

 the walk of life to which he was born, or else from the 

 country. He might migrate into a town to become an 

 industrial workman or something else ; or he might emigrate 

 to a colony. There is in the country itself no rival to set 

 up, to pit against employment at unduly low wages. At 

 this point the taking in of landholding as a complement to 

 labour, recommendable on other grounds, promises to prove 

 effective, as giving our man the first foothold on that 

 " ladder " by which it is intended that he may, by means 

 of the occupation of land of his own, rise step by step to 

 a higher position, of which we have so long been talking. 

 And such combination would promise to prove effective 

 also as setting up an incipient form of competition with 

 pure wage labour, bidding fair to gain in competitive force 

 as time went on. For our labourer, with his little holding, 

 may develop into a market gardener, or a fruit farmer — 

 let alone that, as the " ladder " becomes peopled with 

 climbers, some higher up, some still lower down, his hand 

 and head may be found to be useful implements, for the 

 employment of which there is scope on the holdings of 

 those who have risen to a certain height. We have talked 

 a great deal of that " ladder." Everybody seems to be 

 in favour of it. But when are we going to set up the bottom 

 rung, the first rest for the foot of the rising labourer ? If 

 he is to have access to that rung, unprovided as he is with 

 aU opportunities at present, the community will have to 

 take some steps to place it within his reach. The result 

 to be attained is well worth an effort, even though it be 

 at some public cost. 



Once house room and a modicum of land are provided, 

 we may look with confidence for further development. 



