2 INTRODUCTION 



not realised for a long time ; not, indeed, until successive 

 Reform Acts had so extended the franchise that the composi 

 tion of Parliament had been entirely altered, the proportions 

 of population between urban and rural areas been completely 

 reversed and the landed interest, as a separate entity, been 

 reduced to a minority in the House of Commons. 



This long immunity of the land from attack (for Whigs and 

 Tories were alike of the landed class) not only resulted in 

 apathy among those landowners who still held seats in Parlia- 

 ment, but also in their individual knowledge of the industry 

 becoming, with raie exceptions, practically atrophied, while 

 those among them who did realise the danger of this Par- 

 liamentary neglect yet held the view that they could not 

 press the claims of agriculture, lest they might be accused of 

 attempting to further their own private interests. The sneer 

 of the Socialists of to-day that the agricultural party has 

 always been ever-represented is without foundation, for, 

 though it is true that Parliament has always had among its 

 members a fair number of men who owned land, yet these 

 have for several decades, with a ver}^ few exceptions, held 

 their seats as representatives of every industry save agri- 

 culture, with the consequence that they have too much ignored, 

 not only the welfare of their own landed property, but also 

 the interests of those among their constituents who were owners 

 or occupiers of agricultural land. 



This nice delicacy of feeling has never swayed urban repre- 

 sentatives, and their noisy clamour has occupied the whole 

 attention of Parliament for more than half a century. 



The truth of this charge of neglect on the part of land- 

 owning Members of Parliament is proved by the tentative way 

 in which agricultural organisation first developed. The 

 earliest form of association was a mere gathering of farmers 

 or owners for discussion upon practical questions of cultiva- 

 tion ; for instituting competitions among their tenants and 

 labourers ; and for arranging fcr simple experiments among 

 themselves. The starting of Farmers' Clubs in the period 

 1835 to '45 was but a continuation and expansion of this 

 work on rather more definite lines. It was taken for granted 



