NA TURE 



501 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

 501 



503 

 5°5 

 506 



5°7 

 507 

 508 



Landowners and the State .... 



Bergson and Einstein. By Prof. H. Wildon Carr 

 The Molecular Scattering of Light. By H. S. A. 

 Technical Electricity ...... 



Modern Metallurgy. By W. H. M. . 

 The British Association Addresses of 1922 



Our Bookshelf 



Letters to the Editor : — 



Periodicilies.— Dr. Gilbert T. Walker, F.R.S 



Sir W. H. Beveridge, K.C.B. 

 One Possible Cause for Atmospheric Electric Pheno 



mena. — A Query. — Sir Oliver Lodge, F.R.S 

 School Instruction in Botany. — Dr. Lilian J. Clarke 

 Transcription of Russian Names. — J. G. F. Druce 



and A. Glazunov 



Colour Vision and Syntony. — Dr. F. W. Edridge- 



Green 



The Green Ray at Sunset and Sunrise. — Prof. Alfred 



W. Porter, F.R.S 



Photography of Bullets in Flight. {Illustrated.) By 



Philip P. Quayle 514 



The Study of Man. By H. J. E. Peake . . .516 

 Obituary : — 



Dr. David Sharp, F.R.S. By H. S. . 521 



Dr. William Kellner 522 



Current Topics and Events 522 



Our Astronomical Column 525 



S* 



5ii 



512 



S13 



5'3 



By Dr. C. G. Joh. 



Research Items . 



The Fauna of the Sea-Bottom 



Petersen 



Adhesives. By Emil Hatschek . 

 The Decomposition of Tungsten 

 The Belt of Political Change in Europe 

 University and Educational Intelligence 



Calendar of Industrial Pioneers 531 



Societies and Academies 531 



Diary of Societies 532 



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Telegraphic Address : PHUSIS, LONDON. 

 Telephone Number : GERRARD 8830. 



NO. 2763, VOL. I IO] 



Landowners and the State. 



LORD BLEDISLOE, as president of the Agricul- 

 j tural Section of the British Association at Hull 

 this year, struck a new note in his address. Put very 

 briefly, his text was a demand for more leadership, and 

 in particular for educated leadership by landowners in 

 the business of farming. British farming has for the 

 last two centuries in the main been carried on by 

 tenants possessed of considerable capital, which is 

 employed in the business and not in the land itself nor 

 in its permanent equipment. The result, at any rate 

 until fifty years ago, was successful. Complicated as 

 the question of tenure was in detail, by custom it 

 worked well on the whole ; a sufficiency of capital was 

 attracted to the land to permit of cultivation on a 

 comparatively large scale with sufficient continuity to 

 encourage experiment and improvement, until British 

 farming, whether as regards operations of cultivation, 

 productivity of crops grown or quality of stock bred, 

 stood easily foremost in the whole world. 



British agriculture no longer enjoys the same un- 

 disputed position. We can still point with pride to 

 its technical excellence, but it has not succeeded in so 

 adapting itself to the changed economic conditions as 

 to continue to be regarded as a prosperous industry 

 or to attract the confidence of capitalists. Farmers, 

 despite some protestations, can still make a living out 

 of it, because they can always adjust their style of 

 farming to any range of prices, but the position of the 

 other two parties to the occupation of the land is far 

 from satisfactory. Landowners' rents do not repre- 

 sent a reasonable rate of interest on the money that 

 has been expended on the buildings, etc. necessary to 

 the working of the farm. A piece of average English 

 land in prairie condition could not to-day be equipped 

 as a farm and then let at a rent which would pay 

 market interest on the capital expended in equipping 

 it, even though no charge were made for the land 

 itself. Landowners who sold their farms during the 

 last few years were able after reinvestment to double 

 and treble the income they had derived from them, 

 and at the same time to relieve themselves of many 

 of the calls upon the landlord's purse. Agricultural 

 labourers, again, though they effected some improve- 

 ment in their position during the war, are still the worst 

 paid industrial class of any magnitude in the community. 

 In the villages it is well recognised that a boy is likely 

 to be better off if he can get on the railway, into the 

 police, or any of the other occupations more or less 

 available, rather than go upon the land. 



The tenant-farming system, for all its advantages 

 appears to be breaking down, and Lord Bledisloe 

 regards the landowners of the last generation or two 



