A FULL REWARD FOR THE TILLER. 381 



economy to endeavour to force British Agriculture into a 

 Procrustean bed of any sort. There are different wants 

 to be satisfied, and Nature has, by a difference provided in 

 local conditions, indicated clearly enough in what localities 

 each want will best find its satisfaction. Generally speaking 

 there can be no doubt that our landed properties have been 

 allowed to run into too large areas for agricultural purposes, 

 that the grasping of too much land by one iron hand, which 

 holds it tight, meting it out for what must under the circum- 

 stances be inadequate utilisation, has worked mischief and 

 has become an anachronism. One cannot help thinking 

 that a division of the soil, not forced, but made in response 

 to demands such as one hears expressed on all sides, accord- 

 ing to the idea of " S. G. O.," with the more modern require- 

 ment of many small holdings added, would do away v/ith 

 much of the mischief now complained of — the landlord 

 indifference remarked upon by Mr. A. D. Hall, on one side, 

 and the ignorance and inertness of the majority/ of our 

 smaller farmers, testified to by the Agricultural Education 

 Committee on the other — and that it would redound great'y 

 to the benefit of Agriculture. Under our present conditions, 

 what the French call the faire valoir, the management of 

 agricultural land by its owner, is stated not to have proved 

 a success. A statement to that effect coming from a high 

 authority has already been quoted. However, the cause 

 of this is patent to all agricultural eyes. It is because, 

 as I have more than once heard landlords themselves admit, 

 landlords do not, let us say in a large number of cases, 

 sufficiently know their own business. Suppose the division 

 of our land into small squire properties become prett}^ 

 general — with, let us hope, a large number of yeomen's 

 properties and small holdings clustered round them, accord- 

 ing as the change brought about in economic conditions 

 might favour and justify such development — the entire 

 position of affairs would be likely to become altered for the 

 better. Yeomen's properties could not in olden time hold 

 their own against the large landlord's big purse, because not 

 only co-operation but also intensive cultivation and even 

 high farming were then not yet known ; because credit was 



