October 26, 1916 
LAND & WATER 
17 
taken with public work, political ties, financial or other 
business connections, or military duties which possibly 
compel long absence abroad. All these are. quite good 
and sufficient reasons so long as the nation said, " We 
don't care where our food comes from so long as we get 
it cheap." But once the nation says : " We will grow 
as much as possible ot our food at home, and nialvc it 
worth your while to grow it," then it is incumbent on 
owners" to be landowners first and other things incident- 
ally. They must learn the business of land, and rely on 
their own judgment. 
The Tenant Farmer 
The lack of self-reliance is much more pronounced in tl:e 
tenant farmer. (Iwing to the long period of depressed 
prices he naturally followed the line of least resistance. 
Not ha\ing a very wide outlook the remedy for falling 
prices seemed to him to be reduced rents. He got them 
reduced, in some cases to vanishing point, and in very 
many cases to a point which did not represent 2i per cent, 
on the cost of the buildings on the farms, leaving the land 
rent free. He then gave up doing any repairs, whatever 
his agreement might stipulate, and the landlords 
shouldered this burden. Tithes were transferred to the 
landlord, and frequently even the nominal rents were 
handed back on rent day. All this shows an extraordi- 
nary generosity on the part of owners, and it enabled many 
thousands of tenants to struggle on until the tide turned 
abcnit 11)03. During this period landlords became spoken 
of as in two classes — good and bad. Tlie former meant 
the generous, the latter the man who took all he could 
get, or insisted upon his farm agreements being carried 
out. The fact that the former was able to be generous 
because his income was independent of land was, over- 
looked, and the latter's misfortune in having his invest- 
ment in land was equally forgotten. As the larger 
part of the land in (ireat Britain was in the hands of 
wealthy men most of it remained under culti\'ation at an 
estimated loss of nearly £1,000,000,000 in the capital 
value of land, and £j-j,ooo,ooq per annum between 
1874 and i8()r in the loss of tenants' capital. These 
figures were laid before the Royal Commission on Agri- 
culture by Sir I^obert fiiffen in iSq.}. 
One result of this was that the staple articles of food 
wer.^ sold hAow the cost of production for many years, and 
the British consumers were fed cheaply through the 
charity of our large landowners. That may be a startling 
fact to certain politicians, who not long ago were railing 
at dukes, but if the class of landowners had acted wisely 
instead of generously, many millions of acres must have 
gone derelict, our dependence on foreign production would 
have become absolute, and cheap food would ultimately 
have become a dream. 
The other result was that tenants lost self-reliance. 
Landlords have come to be looked upon as props to help 
men in distress. They have helped to such an extent 
that many have presumed upon this tr^chtional prop, and, 
like parasites, have sought to smother their hosts. The 
cry of " security of tenure " has grown out of this lack 
of self-reliance. This cry has been seized upon by a 
section of politicians, a few exceptional cases have been 
made much of, and a few tenants ha\-e been martyrised, 
but it has been taken up by a number of other tenants, 
usually bad farmers, who see in it a possibility of prevent- 
ing any raising of rents even if prices of produce go up. 
The man who fears eviction because of bad farming 
thoroughly agrees with the maxim of " security of tenure," 
and compensation for disturbance. The landlord who 
gives a tenant notice, for whatever cause, loses popularity 
He fears he may be looked upon as a " bad " landlord, 
and thus frequently a really bad farmer is allowed to go 
on deteriorating the land when he ought to be turned 
oiit. The onus of disturbing a bad farmer must not be 
laid upon the landowner under our new conditions. 
Every proclaimed instance should be adjudicated upon 
by an official tribunal, and if found guilty the farmer 
should be ejected without any claim for cornpensation. 
H there were any real desire for greater security of 
tenure the system of farm leases would not have died 
out so entirely as is the case. It was because farmers 
feared falling prices more than insecurity of tenure that 
annual agreements have become genera,!. 
The best remedy for this lack of self-reliance is owner- 
L'Yser 
For the Annivers.'vry or the Battle or the Vser 
(i6TH-30Tn October, 1014) 
By Emile C.\mm.\erts 
Ce qu'il etait ? Un gros ruisseau. 
Courant en laccts k travers les prairies 
Entre les grosses fermes et les maigres hameaux, 
Dont les toits rouges brillaient au soleil de midi. 
Un ruban d'eau vive enguirlandant la plainc 
De la grace feconde des vaches au pis lourd 
Et de la chanson ferente et saine 
Des coqs sur les fumiers et des cloches sur les tours, 
Ce qu' il est ? 
Un marais 
D'ou surgissent quelques ruines, 
Un marais pourri de vermine, 
Accable de silence. 
Oil la Mort peche ^ coups dc lance. 
Ce qu'il sera, ce qu'il sera, mes freres ? . . . 
Le Nil de nos splendeurs, le Tibre de notre gloire, 
Le Jourdain de notre espoir, 
L'eau lustrale de notre terre. 
L' ultime sanctuaire 
Oil nous viendrons, chaque annee, en longs pelerinages, 
Comme les betes a 1' abreuvoir, 
Comme les bergers et les mages, 
Aspirer k longs traits la pietc des souvenirs 
Et purger nos coeurs de toutc aigreur, de_ tout des»r 
Qui pourrait porter ombrage 
A Ceux dont les mains blemes 
Ont purifie nos fronts du sang dc Icur bapteme. 
[Al.L KiGHTS ReSERVF.D] 
ship instead of tenancy. In order to assist tenants desir- 
ous of becoming owners a Land Bank is needed, and the 
creation of such a bank is perfectly feasible, \\ithout 
going into further detail it is claimed that if the ])eople 
will realise their responsibilit}^ in the matter of food 
production, the four handicaps which now throttle our 
premier industry can be removed. When this is accom- 
plished we shall have no need to go to (iermany or any- 
where else to learn how to turn our land to the most 
profitable account. There is plenty of room for a happy 
mixture of large and small holdings in the country, but 
while the small owner should direct his attention to pro- 
ducing market garden or similar produce, the main ad- 
vantage from the economic point of view of small proper- 
ties is to give a ladder for small capitalists to climb to 
larger fields. 
To prevent misunderstanding, I add one word of 
explanation. I do not wish to convey the impression that 
the foregoing remarks are intended to apply to all tenant 
farmers, or to all landowners. 'J'here is no class without 
its exceptions. Landlords are not all " good," and 
some become classed as " bad " through want of tact 
on the part of their agents. Tenants are not ail " bad." 
Among the latter there are many in (ireat Britain who 
can give a lead to the world. Mr. Christopher Turnor in 
his book Land Problems and National Welfare calls them 
" Star Farmers." 'i'heir brilliant ca]>abilities well deserve 
the name ; but, alas, there are so many who do not even 
try to hold a candle to them. 
The contimiation of Miss Kathleen Burke's vivid 
studies of the French Army, entitled " The White Road 
lo Verdun" will appear in next week's issue. 
The Elements of Tactics, by Qiptain 0. A. Forsyth-Major 
(Gale and Polden; 4s. net.) is an exceedingly able summary 
of the general prihciples of military tactics, illustrated with 
numerous plans of actual operations, and evidently based on 
careful. and comprehensive study of the subject. The autlior 
has done his work in such fashion that the book, in addition 
to being a, valuable manual of instruction, is also a very in- 
teresting work for lay readers. 
