Opinions differ on the value of " the gentleman farmer'
to the community. It -was humorously said of a famous poli- tician turned husbandman that he vowed to " make Isis farm pay whatever it cost him ! " Men who farm for the pleasure of producing first-class stock or stuff may perhaps set up a false ideal of what farming should be. The view may have something in it and over-capitalization is a national fault ; but almost all practical farmers welcome the neighbourhood of the men who are content to spend and not to make. They maintain the level in times of depression and so render revival easier and quicker for the rest. More than this : they make real improvements to-day as in the days of Coke of -Norfolk and "Turnip Townsend." Among this class, what may be called the Institution farmers, take an expanding place. No farm is more practical or turns out poultry better prepared for market than the Norfolk Corporation, which makes its sewage pay. The Hollesley Bay Labour colony has the art of breeding first-rate stock "as strong as any man in Illyria." Institutes for the feeble-minded (who incidentally arc better handlers of animals as a rule than the strong-minded), hospitals and many Municipalities are now regular prizewinners at the Shows.
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