60 POSSIBLE DEVELOPMENTS 



have to be organized and in its early stages financed by 

 some outside agency, like the Agricultural Organization 

 Society, to whom the State has delegated the develop- 

 ment of co-operation, the cost of the initial stages being 

 treated as a necessary preliminary expenditure in the 

 establishment of the colony, like road-making or fencing, 

 This procedure may involve some departure from the 

 strict principles of co-operation, some paternalism ; but 

 the start is all-important and new tenants are rarely in a 

 position to take the initiative. After all the State has 

 become the landlord, and the landlord has duties towards 

 his tenants beyond the mere receiving of rents. 



Organized into a co-operative framework, small- 

 holding colonies can become important agencies in 

 carrying out the object of the State the better utiliza- 

 tion of the resources of the land, both in the way of the 

 increased production of food and the support of a larger 

 rural population. It may be doubted whether they will 

 ever be as efficient as large industrialized farms ; but 

 they are correlative and not antagonistic to such large 

 farms. They have certain social virtues of their own 

 and respond to deep-seated instincts and aspirations in 

 human nature. Above all they provide openings, and 

 by their help new men get a footing in the ranks of the 

 farmers. 



3. The Intensification of Agriculture under the 

 Current System 



It has already been shown that the productivity of 

 the land of Great Britain as a whole has declined during 

 the last forty years, as a result of the great depression 

 consequent on the fall in prices towards the close of the 

 nineteenth century. From this depression the industry 



