16 THE POLICY OF THE PLOUGH 



The mighty Mother renovates with a generous hand 

 whatever man disfigures and destroys. Kingsley did 

 not know when he wrote those lines that by an exquisite 

 appropriateness it would be the French cultivators of 

 the soil who would pay, more promptly and more easily 

 than anyone ever dared to predict, the mass of the 

 great indemnity exacted by Germany. So in the re- 

 construction which will follow this war, and let us hope 

 keep us safe from all similar wars, British agriculture 

 must be one of the " fresh hopes for desperate things." 

 Other countries less favourably situated than we are 

 have prosecuted a great agricultural policy to success. 

 We also can do it if we choose.' 



Nature is indeed a Mother ; she is what Virgil called 

 Italy in the Georgics, "Mother of increase, mighty 

 mother of men " ; and her service, which is agriculture, 

 would be treated with more reverence had men and 

 women been educated to respect that which is most 

 worthy of respect. The cultivation of the soil visibly 

 brings men closer to nature than any other industry ; 

 the life of the agriculturist is a true and honest hfe. 

 He who tends the fields deals in nothing that is sordid 

 or ignoble ; the farmer is the most likeable of men ; 

 naturally so, for he makes his living by the cleanest of 

 trades. Moreover, he serves not only the most im- 

 portant, but the largest industry in England. What 

 Prince von Biilow said of Germany is also true of this 

 country, " Agriculture is the mother of that national 

 strength which industry employs." 



But how different, how perverse, and how unnatural 

 is the conception of agriculture which is not indeed 

 taught in our elementary schools, but commonly 



