CONSERVATIVE FARMING METHODS 27 



Putting aside a substantial minority and many brilliant 

 exceptions, they have not been touched by the revival 

 of agricultural education that has taken place during 

 the last twenty years and do not take advantage of the 

 technical assistance that is now at their service. Most 

 of all their business training is at fault ; they often are 

 capable enough craftsmen, but they are bound within 

 a narrow routine and show no adaptability either in 

 their management or in their buying and selling. On 

 the average farm the expert cannot say " do this " or 

 " use that " and success will ensue ; he sees instead a 

 general low level both of knowledge and of management. 

 In every district certain farms stand out ; and if the 

 neighbouring holdings, with the same class of land and 

 the same opportunities, were only worked with equal 

 intelligence and energy there would be no agricultural 

 problem to discuss. In many parts of the country it is 

 clear that the farmer is occupying more land than he 

 can properly manage with the capital at his disposal. 

 During the depression, men who could in any way make 

 a living by farming got hold of comparatively large 

 tracts of land, often putting several holdings together ; 

 by cutting down expenses they succeeded in obtaining 

 a working profit off these extended areas, and though 

 prices have latterly justified a more intensive policy 

 they still continue to let the land do the work with the 

 minimum of effort on their part. An indictment might 

 be framed against the landlords for not insisting upon 

 higher farming on the part of their tenants, even for not 

 raising rents to the pitch that would force men to a 

 better use of the land they occupy. But landlords were 

 hard hit in the depression, and then learnt to stick to 

 any tenant who could continue to make the land earn 



