land laid down for pasture is not so productive as tilled land, does not
sustain so large a population, and there will be more reasons in the
future than in the past for changing the character of farming in these
areas. The policy of collective farming offers a solution, and whatever
Government is in power should facilitate the settlement of men in
cooperative colonies and provide expert instructors as managers for the
first year or two if necessary. Such a policy would not be so expensive
as land purchase, and with fair rent fixed, hundreds of thousands of
people could be planted comfortably on the land in Ireland and produce
more wealth from it than could ever be produced from grazing lands, and
agricultural workers and the sons of farmers who now emigrate could
become economically independent.

I hope, also, that farmers, becoming more brotherly as their own
enterprises flourish, will welcome laborers into their co-operative
stores, credit banks, poultry and bee-keeping societies, and allow them
the benefits of cheap purchase, cheap credit, and of efficient marketing
of whatever the laborer may produce on his allotment. The growth of
national conscience and the spirit of human brotherhood, and a feeling
of shame that any should be poor and neglected in the national
household, will be needed to bring the rural laborer into the circle of
national life, and make him a willing worker in the general scheme. If
farmers will not, on their part, advance towards their laborers and
bring them into the co-operative community, then labor will be organized
outside their community and will be hostile, and will be always brooding
and scheming to strike a blow when the farmer can least bear it,--when
the ground must be tilled or the harvest gathered. And this, if peace
cannot be made, will result in a still greater decline of tillage and
the continued flight of the rural laborers, and the increase of the area
in grass, and the impoverishing of human life and national well-being.