" LANDLORDISM." 155 



reckless deforestation in China and else- 

 where).* 

 A sound " non-political " conclusion regard- 

 ing the landlords in England would be that only 

 folly could dictate a campaign to exclude them 

 from the work of agricultural regeneration, 

 since most of them have the guidance of a good 

 tradition in their relations with the people, and 

 this makes their personal leadership of value ; 

 and since a great number — perhaps the majority 

 — are content to take interest from their landed 

 estates far less than the economic rate, and thus 

 provide from their private purse subsidies for 



* An Eastern Canada official report (1909) recorded : — 

 " The cause of the flooding which has now become almost an 

 annual event here is to be found in the destruction of the forests 

 of the neighbourhood. In the olden days, when the snow melted 

 in the spring, the fact that so much of the snow was in the woods 

 had a regulating effect on the river, as the melting process was much 

 slower there than in the open, the woods acting in effect as a sort 

 of sponge. Now that so much timber has been taken from the 

 neighbourhood, this regulating power has been destroyed. When 

 the warm rains of the spring come, the snow melts quickly off the 

 open country, and, rushing to the river, quickly swells it to pro- 

 portions which result in destruction to property all along its banks. 

 Another unfortunate result is that after the floods of the spring- 

 time there is little water left to feed the Chaudiere in the summer, 

 and the result shows in the increasing droughts from which the 

 district suffers. Last summer, for the first time on record, children 

 were able to walk barefoot across the Chaudiere at Beauceville." 



