28 A UNIONIST AGRICULTURAL POLICY 



XI. The Board of Agriculture 



The Board of Agriculture must be greatly 

 strengthened and developed. Its present income 

 of ,£158,000 is altogether inadequate. To place 

 our Board on a level with foreign agricultural 

 departments, and to enable it to discharge the 

 duties arising from the proposed agricultural 

 development, will require an income of about 

 £"1,000,000. The existence of the Development 

 Fund does not do away with the need for increas- 

 ing the income of the Board of Agriculture. In 

 fact the working of the Development Commission 

 shows that it ought to be abolished, or that a 

 portion of its funds ought to be transferred to the 

 Board of Agriculture for the purpose of initiating 

 agricultural development in various directions. 



XII. Transport 



The facilities for the transport of agricultural 

 produce must be improved. The improvement 

 of transport conditions mainly depends on two 

 factors : ( 1 ) on the relative rate between home 

 and imported produce ; (2) on co-operative 

 methods of supplying railways with the produce. 

 The present system tends to discriminate in 

 favour of the foreigner. In some, but not all, 

 cases this discrimination is justified by the com- 

 panies on the ground that large shipments of 



