THE PROBLEM STATED. 13 



worship of that strange idol, Party Politics, 

 to which so many Englishmen of to-day seem 

 willing to sacrifice almost anything as a burnt 

 offering. 



Early impressions unconsciously tinge one's 

 mind for life — 



"... neque amissos colores lana refert medicata fuco." 



If there is one prejudice that may colour this 

 criticism, it is the belief I confess to that the 

 system of small mixed farming I knew as a 

 boy in the river valleys of the southern part of 

 Tasmania was the ideal of land cultivation. 

 Since that system, as I have already observed, 

 happens to be one which should be suitable to 

 the soil and climatic conditions of England, and 

 to the social conditions also in some degree 

 (Tasmania in those days had something of the 

 social atmosphere of " Cranford "), perhaps the 

 prejudice is not altogether unfortunate. It is 

 better, certainly, as a frame of mind in which 

 to approach English land cultivation than a set 

 faith in the conditions of the prairie lands of 

 Canada or the great plains of Australia as the 

 only ones possible for profitable agriculture. 

 The small farmer in the valley of the Derwent 



