1102 



The New Farming Landowner. 



[Mar., 



when they had found him. It is absurd to expect a man who 

 has never had a proper agricultural education successfully to 

 farm 1,000 acres of land and be responsible for the return 014. 

 £10,000 to £15,000 of capital, and still more absurd to expect a 

 man who has had such an education, and is competent, to be 

 satisfied only with a salary of £150 or £200 a year and a house. 

 Our agricultural colleges have always been turning out com- 

 petent men of this class, but they could not find employment 

 in England and they had to go to the Dominions or elsewhere 

 to find employment. Henceforth there will be an iucreasing 

 demand for this class, and the demand will create the supply, 

 and our universities and agricultural colleges are now better 

 equipped than they ever were to create the supply. How should 

 such a man when found be paid? He may quite properly be 

 guaranteed a minimum salary of £150 or £200 a year and a 

 house to commence with, or in the case of large farming 

 operations a larger sum, but the real way to reward him and 

 to get the best out of him is to give him a good percentage on 

 the profits as proved by properly and independently audited 

 annual accounts. The most satisfactory relationship can be 

 established on this basis between the owner-occupier and his 

 manager. 



It will be seen from what I have written that I at any rate, 

 am full of hope for the future of agriculture for that class which 

 I have called the owner-occupier, and which includes within 

 itself the small free holder and intensive cultivator of 50 acres 

 living in a cottage and the owner of 5,000 acres living in a 

 country house. 



But for a long time yet there will still be landowners who do 

 not farm all their land and who still let land to tenant farmers. 

 Their duty seems to me to be clear; as long as they retain 

 their land they must make every effort to fulfil their part even 

 in these times of crushing taxation, and keep the land so 

 equipped industrially that they can reasonably insist on the 

 tenant farmer doing his part. They must regard it as a 

 national duty as well as a proper precaution for the interest 

 of their family not to tolerate bad or indifferent farming. They 

 will be entitled to use the Agriculture Act to assist them in 

 carrying out this duty, and they will be entitled to claim a full 

 economic rent for their land. To the good farmers they are 

 bound to continue to show that cordial and intimate considera- 

 tion which it is universally admitted the old type of landowner 

 always showed to his tenants. And those who have struggled 



