M.— AGRICULTURE. 225 



upon the increase of rents as a factor in the enhancement of agricultural 

 prosperity, it cannot be gainsaid, as an abstract economic truth, that 

 an increase in the productivity of agricultural land as the result of the 

 producer's enterprise redounds ultimately to the benefit of its owner 

 or his successor. Also, the difficulties of ' tenant right ' inherent in the 

 relation of landlord and tenant are apt to increase in direct ratio with 

 a tenant's enterprise exercised on another's land, and must almost 

 inevitably eventuate in dual ownership and the domestic antagonism 

 of agricultural interests. 



Great, however, as are the advantages of occupying ownership to 

 the nation and to the industry, it must be recognised that such a system, 

 although capable of wide extension, cannot exist in this country to the 

 entire exclusion of that of landlord and tenant, nor is it desirable. 

 Some of the most skilled, progressive, and deservedly influential farmers 

 in Great Britain are, and will continue to be, farm tenants. Their 

 knowledge of their holdings and their productive capacity is a valuable 

 asset, and promotes output and economy of administration. Although 

 many men of this type have, under the pressure of circumstances, 

 recently purchased their farms, the majority have not. Even if their 

 farms were purchasable the diversion to land purchase of capital use- 

 fully employed in its full exploitation would probably be imprudent and 

 uneconomic. From these men their landlords can learn much; with 

 such men they should strive to establish a relationship of friendly and 

 mutually trustful co-operation in all measures which make for the 

 enhanced prosperity of the farmers' business on the estate or in the 

 district. They should also seek to create and maintain a similar entente 

 cordiale between the various sectional organisations of the agricultural 

 community wherever these exist locally. On the other hand, where the 

 tenant is an obviously inefficient farmer, depreciating his landlord's 

 property, and steadily impoverishing himself and his family, the land- 

 lord, with the moral backing of his more efficient tenants and of the 

 whole local working population, should boldly assume the responsibility 

 of terminating his occupancy. The fact that County Agricultural 

 Committees are now charged with the statutory duty of assisting land- 

 lords in this process should accelerate the dispossession of the indus- 

 trially incompetent. The Agiicultural Holdings Acts, while excellent 

 in theory, have in practice operated to afford security of tenure to the 

 bad tenant equally with the good, and have thereby tended to lower 

 the standard of husbandry throughout England and Wales. The stand- 

 point of the public welfare evolved by war conditions has created, 

 fortunately, a saner outlook upon such matters, even among politicians. 

 The trend of legislation has been in the past, and is even now, all 

 against the active landlord. The tide, however, will assuredly turn when 

 he makes it evident that his welfare and that of the State are identical. 



The land is unsparing oi her faithful devotees. So multifarious are 

 the daily pre-occupations of the successful arable farmer, involving 

 constant personal attention to detail and a readiness to meet unforeseen 

 contingencies, that he can seldom devote time and attention to the 

 work of organisation of the industry and of those engaged in it. This 

 imposes all the deeper obligation upon the more leisured and probably 



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