598 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F, 
has broken down in Ireland, and is breaking down in England, To it is mainly 
due our startling rural depopulation. Whilst there was an increase of 12:17 per 
cent. in the total population of England and Wales at the last census, the dwellers 
in the rural districts had fallen to less than 74 millions, or to 25 per cent. only of 
the whole population. 
Those who urge that we must rely on trade and commerce for our prosperity 
are reminded that the greatest wealth of a nation is its producing power, and that, 
whilst the producing powers of many other undertakings are becoming more and 
more difficult, those of the land are not half-developed. 
The conelusions urged are :— 
(1) That the policy of placing trade and manufactures above agriculture is a 
wrong one. 
(2) That an amount of capital (including the personal labour of the cultivating 
owner and his family) properly invested in land yields a far greater return to the 
community than a similar amount invested in commerce and manufactures, 
(8) That, if health, physical strength, and an increase of the population are to 
be reckoned as national assets, agriculture enriches the nation far more than manu- 
factures can. 
(4) That the home trade, resulting from the development of agriculture, is 
larger, more certain, less fickle, and more valuable than the foreign trade. 
Agriculture must not be regarded simply as any other trade, but as the basis 
of all trades. In France, Germany, and other Continental countries a prosperous 
agriculture and a consequent numerous and thriving rural population are regarded 
by statesmen as the two great pillars of the State on which the general well-being 
of the people rests. They are regarded as the true sources of wealth, as the most 
effective means to secure a wider distribution of wealth, and as the best guarantees 
for national stability. 
Leaving the larger branches of agriculture—the raising of corn, cattle, &¢.—and 
turning to ‘small cultivation,’ we observe that we annually import some sixty 
million pounds’ worth of the smaller articles of food, such as butter, cheese, bacon, 
eggs, poultry, fruit, vegetables, &c., and that these articles might be wholly or 
mainly produced at home if our land system were what it ought to be. 
We have the land, and we have the wen standing idle or only partially em- 
ployed. Many countr y-bred men now employed in the towns would gladly return to 
the villages (tor which they are better fitted) if adequate and reasonable facilities 
were offered to them. 
As to the land, inquiries show that in Great Britain there are some ten to twelve 
million acres of permanent grass (apart from the land used for hay, rich meadow 
land, and land unsuitab!e for the plough) which could be used by small cultivating 
owners, and this acreage is annually increasing. These ten to twelve million 
acres of uncultivated land are for the most part a national loss, and on them pro- 
fitable employment could be found for at least a million of families, growing pro- 
duce for which there is an almost unlimited demand. 
To bring the men and land together is the work of the State, acting through a 
central department as well as through the local authorities. 
Where small ownerships have been tried in this country, under the Small 
Holdings Act, 1892, they have been eminently successful: cases in point are the 
small holdings i in Worcestershire created by the Council of that county. That 
Act, however, requires amendment, and some attempts were made by the author 
this’ year to get it amended, but they were resisted by the Government. 
These proposals are only a part of a complete scheme for re-creating a peasant 
proprietary and yeomen freeholders. Attention is called to a Bill (No. 99) before 
Parliament this year, entitled the ‘ Purchase of Land (England and Wales) Bill,’ 
under which it is proposed (1) that present farm-tenants shall be able to purchase 
the freehold of their land on agreement with their landlords or on its coming into 
the market, and (2) that the Board of Agriculture shall be enabled to purchase land 
for ‘small holdings’ for persons who desire to buy, and who will themselves culti- 
vate such holdings. The principle of the Bill is the same asthat ofthe Irish Land — 
