68 LAND SETTLEMENT & EDUCATION 



a career on the land — if we will offer them the right 

 conditions. 



A satisfactory reply to the second question — " Is 

 there sufficiency of land ? " — will be found in the 

 fact that here in England every year about a 

 million acres of land changes hands, and that com- 

 petent authorities seem to agree that whole estates 

 can be obtained without difficulty. But there is 

 another source of supply. Having regard to the 

 sterner view which the country is taking in respect 

 to the use made of the land by the farmers, it seems 

 certain that many large farmers may have to be 

 dispossessed of a portion of their holdings. They 

 would, of course, receive fair compensation for 

 disturbance, and the whole process should be effected 

 in a way that will cause the least inconvenience 

 to sitting tenants. 



There are many tenants holding 4,000 and 5,000 

 acres in districts where twenty-five acre holdings 

 would succeed admirably. And as from the national 

 point of view it is of the utmost importance to 

 increase the number of independent men living on 

 the land and thereby the output of food per acre, 

 I can foresee that private consideration of the indi- 

 vidual large farmers will have to give way to the 

 larger interests of the country. 



In buying land for settlements the most expensive 

 classes should be avoided in order to keep down the 

 initial capital expenditure. The poorer classes of 

 soil, provided that they are not too heavy in 

 character, are admirably suited for small holdings. 

 It is only necessary to visit Flanders and parts of 

 Denmark to see what can be done with soils of this 



