io A NEW AGRICULTURAL POLICY 



take collective action. When the wind blows 

 across the hills and the open plains it blows 

 across the ill-cultivated field of the bad farmer, 

 and with ruthless impartiality wafts argosies of 

 thistledown on to the well-tilled fields of the 

 good farmer. The wind is no respecter of 

 persons, nor is the rain, which may cause the 

 well-drained fields to become water-logged, 

 should the adjoining farmer or landowner 

 refuse to clean out his ditches and water- 

 courses, or because the river banks are not 

 repaired. With a callous disregard for the 

 virtues of a good husbandman insect pests and 

 fungi will, if they are left to flourish and mul- 

 tiply in the lichen, moss-covered orchards and 

 fields of the careless cultivator, attack clean 

 fruit trees and growing crops which have been 

 sprayed by the diligent farmer. Warble flies, 

 disliking the smell of sheep-dip on the backs of 

 well-groomed cattle in one field, have an exas- 

 perating way of depositing their eggs in the 

 bodies of the untreated beasts that graze in the 

 next ; and the national loss in punctured hides 

 amounts to a very considerable sum. An 

 epidemic of fluke amongst sheep in a wet 

 season recks little of the futile efforts of a few 

 isolated farmers patiently using scientific pre- 

 ventatives. Swine fever will spread from the 

 ill-regulated sty to the model piggery without 

 any respect for the feelings of the sanitary 

 enthusiast. Calves dropped by tubercular cows, 



