SECURITY OF TENURE 63 



men are leaving their farms, and the question remains of 

 what steps can be taken to ensure that after the war the 

 existing occupiers of land shall set about better methods 

 and face the risks involved in a more intensive use of 

 the land. 



Should the schemes that have already been outlined 

 for the creation of large industrialized farms and small- 

 holding colonies develop to such an extent that they 

 take up any considerable proportion of the cultivable 

 land of Great Britain, there would be a sensible reaction 

 upon the rest of the land in the direction of improved 

 farming. For example, if one-half of a large estate were 

 to be withdrawn in order to establish a single large 

 farm, either room for the displaced tenants must be 

 obtained by dividing the holdings upon the rest of the 

 land, or in the alternative such a competition would be 

 set up for the untouched holdings that a selection could 

 be made of none but the best of the old tenants, and a 

 higher standard of farming could be ensured. Thus over 

 the country as a whole the influx of new tenants and 

 new capital that is postulated by either the large in- 

 dustrial farms or the small-holding colonies, must 

 promote the better utilization of the remaining land, 

 both by bringing about division of the existing under- 

 capitalized farms and the concentration of more capital 

 and effort on a given area, and by the more stringent 

 competition that would be set up for the remaining 

 farms. As has been said before, landowners have often 

 to rest content with indifferent farming on the part of 

 their tenants, because they cannot be sure of finding any 

 better ones ; the greater the competition for farms, and 

 the higher the rents the owner can hold out for, the more 

 intensive must be the farming in order to earn the rent 



