POLITICS AND THE LAND. By C. Dampier Whetham. (Cambridge University
Press. 6.s.)—Between some charming little verses in his preface and a prose lyric in conclusion, Mr. Whetham analyses with professorial skill and clarity the condition of British farming. The combination of Don and farmer is not uncommon in Cambridge ; and it has proved fruitful in practice as in this instance on paper. Many more original books have been written of late, but none has quite so neatly pinned down the essentials of British farming con- ditions in the past and the present. Mr. Whetham's forte is not the future. He is content with a vague conservative optimism ; but while he deals severely, if in very temperate language, with the Green Book and the Labour Party's scheme, he lets a certain conditional approval escape him of nationali- zation as outlined by Mr. Orwin—his opposite number at Oxford—and Mr. Peel, whose little book on land tenure con- tinues to exert very remarkable influence on public opinion. To anyone who wishes to clarify his views and dissipate the mists of political theory, Mr. Whetham's volume has no rival.
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