86 RURAL RECONSTRUCTION 



common electric installations, irrigation and the rest of it, are all 

 useless unless the men who conduct these things are themselves 

 rendered competent to work them, are turned, so to speak, into 

 efficient " instruments " fitted to do their work well. Without such 

 preparation all the rest of our organising work may turn out to be 

 thrown away. For you cannot get good organisation out of a dolt. 



Now, as things stand, it cannot be pretended that the men and 

 women engaged in the work of agriculture come up to the descrip- 

 tion here contended for. There are perfect models of expertness 

 and fitness among them, burning and shining lights, fit to serve as 

 patterns all the world over. However, the inquiries lately instituted 

 by Royal Commissions and Departmental Committees, and the 

 opinions pronounced, after careful inquiry, by eminent authorities, 

 such as Sir D. Hall in his " Pilgrimage of British Farming," show 

 that, generally speaking, the personnel of our agriculture is not up 

 to the mark. What we shall therefore have to begin with — logically, 

 though not necessarily in order of time — is the education of the 

 personnel, which has already been spoken of. 



Now at this point the power of self-help in the shape of co-opera- 

 tion unquestionably falls short. There is, indeed, so it may be urged, 

 no educator comparable to co-operation, once the person to be taught 

 has been raised to a particular level. We see that all over Europe. 

 We see it in India, where — in default of Government action — co- 

 operative societies, uninstructed as most of their members are, but 

 appreciating education, now buckle manfully to the task of educating 

 their members and their children. But co-operation cannot pos- 

 sibly do the first work in education, nor cover the whole ground to be 

 cultivated. You cannot appeal to the people to be educated them- 

 selves for sufficient effort, because want of education is the last thing 

 the person insufficiently educated is aware of as applying to him- 

 self. Nor is there any direct prospect of " money " in education — 

 such as there is, to allure people, in co-operative buying and selling. 

 Also, a co-operative society, invaluable as it is for training unbusi- 

 nesslike men to business habits and for sharpening wits by contact 

 with others in matters of technical practice, is not the proper 

 agent to employ for imparting all the education that is needed. It 

 can teach many things. It is pretty sure to awaken a keen thirst 

 for further education, but it cannot undertake the entire task by 

 itself. " Better Farming " presupposes the possession of vocational 

 knowledge, which it is only subsidiarily the business of co-operation 

 to infuse. 



The education required for " Better Farming " — which " Better 



