54 RURAL RECONSTRUCTION 



We have admirable means now provided for us for engaging in 

 such study. The Blue Books which our Government used from time 

 to time to issue on such subjects were of very varied value. The 

 reason, as the late Sir D. Colnaghi objected to me when charged by 

 our Foreign Office with a task of that kind, for which he confessed 

 that he felt unfit, is that not every consul can report on subjects 

 altogether foreign to his own habitual labours. But now we have 

 the monthly Bulletin of the " International Institute of Agriculture " 

 at Rome, which is an admirable publication of its kind, giving ample 

 and most interesting information on agricultural matters in all its 

 parts all over the world. Whatever we may think of its originator, 

 the late David Lubin's, seemingly Utopian plans for regulating the 

 market prices of agricultural produce, for the creation of an office 

 so well collecting such instructive information, he certainly deserves 

 the thanks of agriculturists everywhere. The pity is that the 

 information so offered is so little taken advantage of. 



Now, on the point that I have ventured to put forward, the 

 making people to realise that the matters taught by competent 

 men, however uninteresting and indifferent such may appear to 

 the average British farmer, have a direct material interest for him — 

 that tua res agitur, or, to put it in English, that it is his own benefit 

 which is at stake — foreign example teaches us a great deal. Classes, 

 lectures, articles and books are dry methods for him who is used to 

 field work and to taking in his information from living or vegetating 

 objects. Classes are of little use to adults, at any rate except when 

 they are accompanied by demonstration. Lectures are looked 

 forward to as dry, dealing as they do with their subject, as a general 

 rule, in an abstract way, which leaves the farmer, used to eye- 

 teaching and practical talk, in doubt how they come home. A real 

 discussion, in which our man might freely, without gene, put forward 

 his queries and indicate his doubts, would be more to the purpose. 

 But we have very few such exchanges of opinion. Our discussions, 

 as a rule, turn rather on class interests than on questions genuinely 

 of agriculture. Farmers may come to hear an address upon some 

 new feature in agriculture, such as sugar beet growing, the cultiva- 

 tion of tobacco — some time ago it was silos — or the like. And there 

 they listen. Some of the more intelligent men may ask questions 

 and determine to inquire further into the matter. But that is as 

 a matter of possible business one particular case. Leaflets, books 

 and articles are insipid matter indeed for the son of the land, and 

 often enough leave little impress upon his mind. 



What we want to do is to get hold of the individual, to show him 



