CHAPTER XXII 



DISCOURAGERS AND PESSIMISTS — THE PART THEY PLAY 

 IN THE AGRICUETURAL QUESTION — UNDER SIMILAR 

 CONDITIONS, AGRICULTURE CAN RE AS SUCCESSFUL 

 AS MANUFACTURES 



^Iany misconceptions still exist in the minds of most people 

 in respect to British agriculture being a possible industry. 



These misconceptions exist because there are all sorts of 

 bizarre notions in respect to this great primal industry, the 

 inevitable outcome of environing it with unhealthy and, there- 

 fore, unnatural conditions. 



Many people have become veritable pessimists and dis- 

 couragers in all matters pertaining to agriculture, and the 

 harm they do is not lessened because of their real belief in 

 the hopelessness of the industry tliey condemn. 



What many People think of AoiHCULTUPtE 



Some tliink that the industry is hopeless because of the 

 general desire on the part of the rural population to get what 

 is called " a good time." 



The people want more amusement, it is said ; they like 

 the cheap restaurants, the cocoa-rooms, the public-house and 

 the music halls, the busy thoroughfares, the glitter of shops 

 and the well-lighted streets. Tliey want more excitement 

 than they get in the countv}', and rural folk are, therefore, 

 well content to cliange the dull village life for the superior 

 attractions of a bustling town. 



Others conteiul that tlie spread of education has made the 

 village lads and maidens discontented with the ordinary sur- 

 roundings of countiy life and its dull setting of colourless 

 background, and that they pine to break away from it all and 

 find an outlet for their new-born ambitions in other directions 



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