402 EXPERIMENT STATION EECOED. [Vol. 38 



More recently another book has appeared, entitled British Agri- 

 culture — the Nation's Opportunity, which is based on the minority 

 report of a committee appointed by the British Board of Agriculture, 

 on the employment on the land of discharged soldiers and sailors. 

 The book contains an introduction by Mr. A. D. Hall, who explains 

 that it is the first effort appearing under public authority to set out a 

 program for the reconstruction of rural life. It represents a consid- 

 erable revolution in public opinion with regard to the position of 

 agriculture in the United Kingdom, obscurely progressing for many 

 years but suddenly strengthened and crystallized by the war, until 

 " there are few people who now have not been taught by events that 

 agriculture must be revivified in the luitional interest." The uncer- 

 tainty of disturbed economic and industrial conditions after the war 

 directs attention, as he says, to the land as the great undeveloped asset 

 of the nation, the prime source of wealth and the first link in the 

 whole chain of industries. 



Granting the case for the reconstruction of agriculture, the ele- 

 ments of the process are described as threefold — the establishment of 

 such a level of prices as will render intensive farming possible, the 

 improvement of the position of the Ijiborer, as regards wages, hous- 

 ing, and the amenities of life, and, lastly, the recognition that owner- 

 ship of land carries with it a duty to the community. 



The British Government has had for some time in operation a 

 Ministry of Reconstruction, with a large number of commissions and 

 committees — some eighty-seven in all — to deal with questions which 

 will arise at the close of the war. Under the section of agriculture 

 and forestry, four committees are included, namely, on agricultural 

 policy, forestry, land settlement, and horse breeding. There are also 

 committees on cold-storage research and on food research, to deal 

 respectively with the problems of the preservation of food, and with 

 the cooking of vegetables and meat, and bread making. For the 

 cotton industry, there are committees on cotton growing within the 

 Empire, Indian cotton, and research and education for the cotton 

 industry, with a view to the organization of a research association. 

 These committees have been in active operation for some little time, 

 and a number of them have already made preliminary or partial 

 reports. 



A committee of special interest is that on agricultural policy, ap- 

 pointed by the Prime Minister in August, 191G, and headed by the 

 then president of the Board of Agriculture. The committee includes, 

 among others, such well-known men as Mr. A. D. Hall, Mr. R. E. 

 Prothero, the present president of the Board of Agriculture, and Sir 

 Horace Plunkett. It was charged with considering and reporting 

 upon the methods of effecting needed increase in home-grown 



