CONDITIONS OF SUCCESS 5 1 



compensation, whether the landlord's consent had been 

 given or not, the transition from unprofitable corn to 

 partially profitable stock and dairy and other farming 

 would have been quicker and more general. 



Conclusions. 



To sum up briefly the results from this type of evi- 

 dence, it is hard to take, as regards the country at large, 

 quite the sanguine view of Mr Wilkinson, a Northum- 

 brian witness, who thinks, "We have got out of the 

 trough of bad times, and are adapting ourselves to new 

 conditions." But some progress has certainly been 

 made in carrying out Mr Stratton's excellent advice to 

 " keep down the expenditure upon unprofitable land, and 

 do your better land as well as possible." But the starting 

 of remedial lines has been too much delayed. In all 

 probability some of the worst land should have been 

 abandoned sooner. It is certain that a prompt and 

 careful laying down of much of the heavier land years 

 ago would have saved enormous losses. In too many 

 districts the land had got out of condition, and the 

 farmers had lost their capital before the true policy was 

 seen. Even where it was grasped in time, the stereotyped 

 rules or estate agreements, the habits and traditions of 

 the English land system, the charges and burdens under 

 which too many landlords have lost initiative power, or 

 again the liabilities of the farmers themselves limiting 

 their command of capital, have made it difficult, if not 

 impossible, to effect promptly the indispensable re- 

 volution in the order of things. 



Where any degree of success has been obtained, which 

 is not obviously due to special or local circumstances, its 

 conditions have been (i) a high degree of capacity, 

 energy, and industry ; (2) free scope of action ; and, 

 most indispensable of all, (3) adequate capital. 



The exceptions establish cleady the general rule. The 

 essential factor in the struggle with low prices is the 

 capital of the working farmer. Unless the tenant's 



