NATIONAL COUNCIL OF AGRICULTURE 1 2 1 



expense of the wheat acreage. That is to say, 

 it may be advisable, on national grounds, for 

 the production of more milk, to grow more 

 green crops, peas, beans, cabbage, mangolds, 

 swedes, tares, annual leas of grass and clover, 

 and so lessen the importation of expensive 

 linseed and cotton cake. Oats, too, form an 

 important crop in arable dairying, but the 

 policy of continuous cropping for milk and 

 meat will be largely dictated by climatic con- 

 ditions — Scotland, Wales, and Ireland being 

 climatically more favourable than the eastern 

 counties of England to this method of cultiva- 

 into. It may, too, be sound national policy to 

 encourage the cultivation of sugar-beet. In 

 any case we should keep land under the plough, 

 and, being permanently equipped with better 

 buildings, implements, and horses for arable 

 cultivation, we should be ready for any emer- 

 gency. Personally, I am convinced that arable 

 dairying would be more economical — in the best 

 sense — than an indiscriminate plough policy for 

 wheat. I am sure it is so for Scotland, where 

 magnificent crops of oats can be grown in 

 places where wheat cannot thrive. 



To deal with these, and with other matters 

 cognate to them, it will be necessary to have 

 a National Council of Agriculture, but this 

 must be a live body, an assembly not merely 

 meeting twice a year, with an Advisory Com- 

 mittee only permitted to make recommendations. 



