240 THE LAND AND ITS PROBLEMS 



have been greater still, and many more acres would have 

 fallen out of cultivation. The landlord farmed the land 

 himself and farmed it unsuccessfully, but he kept the land in 

 cultivation and the labourers employed. The result to him 

 was the loss of half the capital the family had previously 

 possessed. Another result was that brains and money were 

 no longer attracted to farming. A change also took place in 

 the ownership of land. Land again became a luxury for the 

 rich and that was a great misfortune for the country. 



These national calamities, land that ought to be cultivated 

 lying uncultivated and the over-production of game, were 

 not causes but effects. They were the result of the fact that 

 land was owned by men who did not care what it produced, 

 they had bought it for amusement, just as in the old days it 

 was bought for political power. 



THE FUTURE 



We had all learnt much from the war. We had learnt the 

 immense strength which was gained by a country if it could 

 feed its own people. We had learnt the great value of a rural 

 population. We had learnt the anxieties that were caused to 

 a nation at war which had to import a large proportion of 

 essential products from overseas during the war. Please God, 

 this country should never have to undergo that experience 

 again. But to secure that end we must so frame all our 

 agricultural laws as to obtain the greatest possible national 

 security. 



I think (Lord Selborne went on) there ought to be nothing 

 less than a revolution. We want to see the greatest possible 

 number living on the land. We want to see the agricultural 

 labourer assured of a good wage, a good house, and a good 

 garden. More than that, we want to see him assured of the 

 prospect of becoming a cultivator of the land himself and 

 eventually an owner. We want, in fact, an agricultural ladder 

 which will enable a man to rise on the land just as he can 

 rise in any other walk of life. Then we want the farmer to 



