148 GENERAL IMPRESSIONS IN 1910 



We found little desire on the part of the large 

 farmer to become his own landlord ; he wanted all 

 his capital to put into his business. Occasionally 

 we met with a farmer who had been driven to purchase 

 his farm because the estate had been sold and his 

 business would have suffered too seriously from a 

 change, but in most cases he was paying as much 

 or more than his previous rent as interest on the 

 mortgage, besides having put down a portion of the 

 price in hard cash. Even when land can be bought 

 outright at 20 years' purchase it can rarely be mort- 

 gaged at less than 4^ per cent., which leaves only 

 | per cent, for materials, for repairs, and any 

 other allowances which dip deeply into the landlord's 

 pocket. Above all, in bad times the mortgagee 

 presses for payment, when the landlord will wait 

 because he can trust the character of his tenant and 

 measure the inevitable ups and downs in farming 

 that are brought about by the seasons. Even for small 

 farmers the same difficulties seem to be inherent in 

 ownership : they are even increased by the fact that 

 the small man will mortgage his land in order to 

 acquire a little more a proceeding which brings 

 disaster as soon as times become bad. The economic 

 value of the landlord can be more than justified in 

 the history of English farming, and we believe that 

 he might more than ever establish his position to-day 

 if he would take the opportunities of leadership that 

 lie before him. As a class farmers are probably 

 more disposed to take advice than they have ever 

 been, but in social and economic matters they are very 

 little influenced by argument alone. Many questions 

 of co-operative production and collective trading which 

 are now hanging fire because they are all against the 

 individualist habit of mind of the British farmer would 



