Land and the People

Annotation

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The fundamental question is whether the best use is being made of the soil, and this question has two aspects, which are closely connected but not the same. They are p0pu lation and production. That is to say, we may regard agriculture as an occupation and judge it by the population it maintains, or as a means of production and judge it by the amount of food it produces for the whole com munity. These are the fundamental ques tions because they have to do with life and the final aim of all effort, whether individual or social, is life itself - its preservation and increase in quantity or quality or both. Mankind always praises the preservation, the increase, and the improvement of life, and condemns the Opposite. The complaint about agriculture is that as an occupation it fails to maintain life both in quantity and quality, and that as a productive agency it might do more to feed the nation than it does. Some times stress is laid on the one and sometimes on the other; but they are generally regarded as involving each other more or less. Just at present the former complaint seems to be more prominent. If the rural population Were increasing in number and improving in quality there would be no land question, or none in the sense of an acute political issue. What catches the ear is the cry that rural life.