COUNTRY LIFE
A Communal Farm
Of all the schemes devised or practised for supplying the unemployed with a profitable occupation for their leisure none seems to me more fitly adapted to its end than the communal farm, so to call it, organised in Glamorganshire. The details of the scheme may be left for later description and criticism ; but the rough idea is worth emphasising for the sake of imitation, for the sake of adoption and adaptation elsewhere. A valley, well fitted by its gradient to many different sorts of culture, is converted into a farm where all manner of food is produced : milk, eggs, vegetables and the rest. The chief part of the work is done by unemployed men who give each just so many hours a week—it may be quite a few—to the work. The idea is that they give this labour for nothing in respect of direct pay ; but are entitled to buy food from the farm at a very low price. In essence they produce their own food ; but while a gardener can only supply himself with vegetables, these groups of labourers by the force of their co-operation can in some measure supply themselves with most of the essential foods.
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