Agricultural Ignorance. 113 



of the routine he has been drilled into is liable to be, and 

 often is, in a very helpless condition in consequence of 

 his want of general agricultural knowledge. Worse 

 .still, he is stpeped into a thorough belief that the 

 system he has learned is infallible, and therefore suited 

 to any times — a belief which, of course, seals his 

 mind against the intrusion of any new ideas. When 

 discussing with a farmer the changes required by the 

 times, and a need for a thorough knowledge of grasses, 

 he pointed to an old pasture, and said, " I know as much 

 as most of them, and yet I could not tell you the name 

 of one of these grasses." " We are awfully ignorant," 

 said another to me when I was alluding to that or some 

 other farming subject. And the class to which I belong, 

 the landlord class, is in much the same position as 

 their tenants ; rather worse, indeed, for the agricultural 

 ignorance of the landlords consists of what theologians 

 denounce as the worst form of ignorance — a desire not 

 to know — as I have previously shown in the early pages 

 of this book. When, lastly, we turn to the factor or 

 land agent, we shall find that he is simply an estimable 

 gentleman who goes round with a bag, and when he 

 has filled it he has not the slightest idea whether he has 

 done so with the legitimate interest of the soil, the 

 capital of the tenant, or the capital of the landlord, or a 

 mixture of all three. Nor does he appear to think it his 

 duty to make any inquiries on the subject. For many 

 years past he has filled it very largely with the capital 

 of the landlord ; and, indeed, this must have been so, or 

 we should not have heard such numerous coniplaints of 

 exhausted soil. This is simply another term for depleted 

 landlords' capital, which, I need hardly explain, consists 

 mainly of soil. Now, to make any progress in our 

 agriculture in such a way as to enable it to grapple 

 successfully with these difficult times, we must, first of 

 all, take into account the mental condition of the three 

 great classes engaged in land, and its management and 

 cultivation, and adapt our educational methods in such 



