206 OUR ENGLISH LAND MUDDLE. 



Having come to the conclusion from as close 

 a study of the position as was possible to me that 

 some measure of tariff protection was necessary 

 for the revival of British agriculture, I was 

 strengthened in it considerably by finding that 

 the British farming class held generally the same 

 view. Inquiring among farmers in very many 

 counties "as to what is needed for a revival of 

 the agricultural industry," I was almost in- 

 variably met by a reference to the tariff ques- 

 tion. In the course of my investigations I met 

 only one practical and successful farmer who held 

 that agriculture could prosper under Free Trade 

 conditions. I encountered many landowners 

 holding Free Trade views, but these Free Trade 

 landowners were not under the necessity of 

 making a living out of the land. They hold 

 their estates for the sake of sentiment or of 

 sport, and do not face the business side of the 

 question. But this one exception, a Cambridge- 

 shire landlord, who has a well- deserved reputation 

 as a practical man, and who makes farming pay, 

 insisted that all that is needed for agriculture 

 is to be " let alone." If, he maintained, " the 

 faddists would keep their hands off the land and 



