INDUSTEIOUS CLASSES 163 



any country. Anyone who will attempt to analyse 

 the circumstances which call into operation the pro- 

 ductive energy of this select band will find ready to 

 hand the materials for a most instructive study. 

 Further, a class of men has come into existence during 

 recent years who make a practice of hiring semi- 

 derelict or half-cultivated land for a period of ten 

 years or so, and working it for all it is worth. 

 They usually select a tract where either rainfall or 

 irrigation facilities are good, and where profitable 

 commercial crops can be grown. Such cases are 

 nowadays numerous in the cotton and sugar-cane 

 tracts, and the men in question frequently show 

 much energy, technical skill and business ability. 

 They usually make good profits, often teach their 

 neighbours a good deal that they did not know before, 

 and are quite ready to shift from one locality to 

 another when they can see good prospects in doing so. 

 There are, therefore, individuals who manage to 

 avoid or surmount the obstacles to progress which 

 we have considered in this chapter. It must be the 

 object of any considered agricultural policy to enable 

 others to do the same, and so to call into activity 

 potential energy which is now latent, and to liberate 

 productive forces which are now repressed. Such a 

 policy will be considered in the next chapter; but 

 before concluding this chapter it may be instructive 

 to cite a well-authenticated case where the standard 

 of productivity and material welfare were greatly 

 raised in a short period amongst large bodies of 



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