OPPORTUNITIES OF THE ARABLE FARMER 35 



crops from which under good conditions he reaps a 

 considerable return, but which he turns to other uses 

 if the market is unfavourable. He may sow greens, 

 cabbage or broccoli, saleable at good prices on occasion 

 and always utilizable for sheep keep ; he may leave 

 some second-cut clover for seed, or make good money 

 out of potato growing. In every part of the country we 

 may see instances of the way a really knowledgeable 

 farmer on the look out for opportunities makes success- 

 ful departures from the ordinary routine of his business 

 and obtains a general average of profit far higher than 

 set out in the typical case quoted. Success of this kind 

 is dependent upon the farmer himself. We possess 

 farmers full of enterprise, none better ; but their example 

 is not generally followed, their methods have not been 

 systematized so as to become the ordinary standard of 

 agriculture. Many farmers are short of capital for the 

 size of their holdings ; they cannot, if they would, depart 

 from the routine of the minimum of cultivation ; still 

 more are the necessary personal qualities of knowledge, 

 determination and enterprise lacking. 



Under ordinary conditions it would have been wise 

 to trust to the slow but sure spread of education to 

 bring farming up to a higher level. Of late years the 

 necessary fabric of instruction and research has been 

 to some extent provided, its effects were beginning 

 to be felt, and though many people may consider that 

 its action was hampered by our system of land tenure, 

 this, in its turn, would have been reshaped by a more 

 enlightened agricultural community, and the first steps 

 towards enlightenment were being taken. We might 

 have counted on the known profits of agriculture 

 attracting more men and fresh capital into the business, 



