2 2 Agriculture and the Corrimunity. 



Still, we concluded that farming was in a good way and 

 was yielding a fair return upon the capital embarked in 

 it, though it was never likely to lead to a fortune. Of this 

 prosperity the best external evidence was that we could 

 very rarely hear of any farms to be let, while in every part 

 of the country the good farms were bespoken long before 

 they came into the market. Rents, too, were rising; we 

 heard over and over again of re-letting at an increased 

 figure, especially where the farms had been put up for 

 competition. We even heard of one or two cases of rent 

 having been raised on a sitting tenant, and no landlord 

 or agent would incur the unpopularity of such an action 

 unless he had very solid grounds for supposing that it was 

 justified." In the same book (p. 431), writing two years 

 later, he says, " We must recognise that the industry is 

 at present sound and prosperous." 



This view of the economic position of the industry as 

 a whole, which is held by those most competent to judge, 

 may be set against the ingrained pessimism of the farmers. 

 It entitles us to say that the failure of the industry to 

 make effective use of the land, is not to be explained by 

 reference to the alleged unremunerative character of the 

 industry. That there is such failure, is common ground 

 with those entitled to judge. Lord Milner, who was 

 chairman of the Departmental Committee on Food 

 Production in 191 5, summed up his impression of 

 agriculture in England in the evidence he gave before the 

 Selborne Committee. " He had arrived at a profound 

 conviction that the land of England was very much under- 

 cultivated and would richly repay a far more liberal 



