58 Agriculture and the Community). 



endeavoured to do has been to bring together statements 

 and criticisms which have been common to many writers 

 and critics, and all of which have been stated more ably 

 and fully than I can hope to do. If I have been fortunate 

 enough to carry any readers with me so far, I have now 

 to ask them to bear with me while I venture on proposals 

 which must be more speculative, and for which I cannot 

 quote authorities as I have endeavoured to do so far. 

 Practically all those who have written or spoken on 

 agriculture have taken it for granted that the industry is 

 to develop within the confines of the system of land tenure 

 as we know it, with slight amendments, and that farming 

 will continue to be an affair of private enterprise for 

 individual capitalists employing wage-earners, and working 

 for a market open to all the vicissitudes of speculation 

 and unregulated competition. Almost all the changes 

 advocated in agriculture assume that these conditions will 

 remain practically unchanged. They merely propose here 

 and there to interpose collective effort in a timid and 

 halting fashion to ameliorate the worst defects of the 

 present system ; they do not propose any fundamental 

 change in the system. I do not believe there is any hopeful 

 future for the industry unless an effort is made to secure 

 a more drastic reconstruction. For the largest class 

 directly concerned in the industry, the agricultural workers, 

 it seems to me evident that the outlook holds little promise 

 of such changes as will provide a good life if the present 

 system is maintained much as we know it, however valuable 

 in themselves some of the reforms suggested may be. 

 Without radical changes the workers must soon reach the 

 limit of wages that the industry can bear, and that limit, 



