24 A NEW AGRICULTURAL POLICY 



national standpoint the efforts of one or two 

 civil servants had a more far-reaching effect 

 than the individual efforts of our best farmers 

 and best landowners. The nation owes its 

 debt of gratitude to men like Sir Daniel Hall, 

 and Mr. F. C. L. Floud, C.B. (who was the 

 chief official of the Food Production Depart- 

 ment), and those other much maligned 

 " bureaucrats," with their subordinate associates, 

 who constituted the driving force behind the 

 Cultivation Orders, rather than to the Ministers 

 of State who gesticulate so grandiosely before 

 the public. 



Now let us see what a few extracts from 

 these Reports reveal to us as to the condition 

 of the land in many an agricultural district of 

 England, even at the time when the nation's 

 food supply was in peril. 



" Baynard's Estate, Cranleigh, is an estate 

 situated on the Surrey and Sussex borders, 

 distant 3 miles from Cranleigh, and comprising 

 some 1362 acres, of which 405 acres were 

 arable, 457 acres pasture, and 500 acres were 

 occupied by woods, buildings, roads, etc. 



"The estate was purchased by its present 

 owner some sixteen years ago ; some 250 acres 

 had been allowed to go out of cultivation, and 

 were covered with briars, seedling birch trees, 

 rough grass, and weeds. The extensive farm 

 buildings were unused, and the cottages stood 

 empty ; except for a few horses there was no 



