284 BRITAIN FOn THE BRITON 



have, therefore, no hesitation in rccommendiug that this course be 

 adopted." * 



" Yonr Commissioners are of opinion, basinij their belief on the 

 most trustworthy information at their disposal, that there are roughly 

 9,000,000 acres of land in the United Kingdom which may, with 

 advantage to the State, be afforested." f 



With these most excellent reasons there is no question that 

 the State, and the State alone, is the proper and, indeed, the 

 only agency capable of producing successful results in the 

 important industry of sylviculture, and all parties in the House 

 should unite in asking the Crovernment to deal with the matter ; 

 but will they ? 



If one may judge of the future action by past events, there 

 will be no more chance of the Government carrying out the 

 recommendations of the Eoyal Commission on Afforestation 

 than there will be of real reform in other directions. The 

 chances are that national sylviculture will be made the sport 

 of the various political parties in Parliament as scores of other 

 popular measures have been. Expcrtus metuit ! 



Difficulties of Back to the Land overestimated 



There are two other points in the consideration of the 

 subject that should not be overlooked : (a) that of investing 

 the question of finding a capable band of agriculturists to work 

 occupying-ownerships with greater difficulties than the history 

 of the past justifies ; {h) in attaching more importance to what 

 is called the British " Territorial Aristocracy" than is justified 

 by results. 



The first point has been made the subject of polemics for 

 years past, and a great deal of nonsense has been uttered by men 

 of all classes and cults, but the most matter-of-fact, common- 

 sense way to deal with this question — as with every similar 

 question in this world — is not to talk about it, but to act. If 

 " Geordie " Stephenson had talked about his locomotiv^e one- 

 fiftieth part as much as "experts " have talked about — the possi- 

 h'dUy of finding cajjoble p)casant liToprietws for our Small Hold- 

 ings, the railway locomotive would never have been un fait 

 accompli, so far as Stephenson was concerned ; but that shrewd 

 north countryman knew better than to talk — he acted. 



Take the cycle and motor manufacturing industry as another 

 concrete example. In 1881 there were but 1086 workers 

 engaged in the trade ; twenty years later there were 3.3,356 

 persons employed — an increase of over 3000 per cent, in twenty 



* Roval Commission on Coast Erosion and Afforestation, 1909, p. 34. 

 t Ihid., p. 37. 



