90 A NEW AGRICULTURAL POLICY 



It will be seen from these criticisms that the 

 Agricultural Committees are constituted and 

 controlled in a manner not likely to give 

 grounds for hope to those who desire a pro- 

 gressive national policy in agriculture. When, 

 however, we come to our second point, the 

 powers with which they are invested, it is 

 doubtful if the best imaginable committees 

 could justify their existences. The Agriculture 

 Act has been called the Farmers' Charter. 

 Ostensibly it was designed to stimulate food 

 production, as it carries with it such of the 

 miserable remnants of the Corn Production 

 Act (Part IV.) as could be rescued from the 

 destructive hands of the Lords. For the life 

 of me, I cannot see that it will produce any 

 other crop than lawyers' fees. Whilst the 

 stinging whip of Madam D.O.R.A., 2 m., is 

 broken, it is not replaced even by that lady's 

 hatpin as a goad in the Committees' hands. 

 The guarantees will certainly not stimulate the 

 production of a single additional quarter of 

 wheat. Even the good cultivation clauses of 

 Part IV. have been eviscerated. Although 

 private enterprise has failed to deliver the goods, 

 and although farming by inspectorship can 

 make little better claim, all that an Agricultural 

 Committee can insist on, in a vague sort of 

 way, is a standard of good husbandry, which I 

 am afraid will probably consist of cutting down 

 docks and thistles and cleaning out ditches. 



