478 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



— -take what work he could find and devote himself to a 

 treadmill existence. 



Evidently these things ought not so to be. Evidently 

 the multiplication of small holdings, the access given, to 

 the small man as well as to the great, to free contact with 

 " Mother Earth " — which is calculated to make him a 

 better-to-do, more contented and happier man — promises, 

 by reason of the new interest given in life, the more varied 

 occupation and the sense of responsibility awakened by his 

 farming for his own account, to prove the better workman. 

 Evidently also the opening up of the land to small holders 

 in an ampler measure must tend to thin the population 

 in over-peopled towns and by an Antaeus touch with deserted 

 Earth to infuse new health and strength into our population, 

 about the decline of whose physique we have before the 

 war had so many complaints — -some of which the war has 

 indeed not altogether borne out. 



This is, as already observed, very much more than a purely 

 agricultural question, though the agricultural side does not 

 want to be lost sight of. Experience has shown this else- 

 where. It is true that where there are small holdings there 

 are other troubles besetting nations. But those other 

 troubles do not necessarily spring from the absence of the 

 one. The devil has his own gift of finding his way in 

 everywhere. However, because another man, who is free 

 from our dyspepsia, happens to suffer from sciatica, that is 

 no reason why we should not do our best to get rid of our 

 dyspepsia when we have the chance. 



Small cultivation, wherever it is practicable — which is 

 not, of course, everywhere — distinctly does produce more 

 value than large farming, although not precisely in the same 

 shape. And it produces it at the most favourable place 

 for turning it to account, that is, in the place where most 

 of it is also consumed, and where, labour not being counted, 

 it is cheapest to produce. We have therefore here the ideal 

 combination of cheapest production with disposal in the 

 most appreciative market. It does not follow that, because 

 the wealthy man, in a town, prefers to buy what produce 

 he wants ready prepared, in the place of producing it for 



