1 8 Agriculture and the Community. 



slowness of both landlords and farmers to face the new 

 situation created by the development of the corn lands of 

 the New World. That the change when it did come swung 

 over too far to the other extreme is true, and that farmers 

 as a class had the lesson so deeply bitten into them that 

 they were unnecessarily timid when the tide began tO' turn 

 towards the end of the first decade of this century is 

 proved by the successful work of the more enterprising 

 and vigorous farmers in all districts. Sir Daniel Hall's 

 book gives much interesting evidence of this all over the 

 country. From the national standpoint the decay of 

 cultivation is a serious question, but when all the circum- 

 stances are taken into account, any sweeping generalisa- 

 tion based on the increase of grass land is essentially 

 unfair to those who had to bear the brunt of the bad times. 

 Nor is it enough to point out that the number of 

 workers employed on the land has steadily decreased. 

 Agriculture in every land is faced with the problem of how 

 to retain its labour supply in competition with the 

 industrial centres. The problem is largely a social one 

 and agriculture in the nature of things will always be 

 handicapped because of the gregarious instincts of human 

 beings. We have also to take into account the changes 

 which have been effected in agricultural methods. 

 Although much has yet to be done, agriculture has been 

 following the course of all other industries and endeavour- 

 ing to increase its mechanical power and lessen its 

 dependence on human labour. From the point of view of 

 the agricultural workers that is all to the good, and if they 

 had been able to follow the example of other workers and 



