"Yes, I ought to have said to him: You say that our husbandry does not answer because the peasant hates improvements, and that they must be forced on him by authority.
If no system of husbandry answered at all without these improvements, you would be quite right.
But the only system that does answer is where laborer is working in accordance with his habits, just as on the old peasant's land half-way here.
Your and our general dissatisfaction with the system shows that either we are to blame or the laborers.
We have gone our way--the European way--a long while, without asking ourselves about the qualities of our labor force.