FARMING BY COLLECTIVE EFFORT 153 



to finance any new agricultural schemes. In 

 a policy such as I have outlined, the State 

 alone should be the banker. Any attempt to 

 increase the sphere of the joint-stock banks 

 would be to increase the difficulties of land 

 nationalisation. The banks are to-day obtain- 

 ing a powerful grip on the land, as most of 

 the money that farmers have raised in order 

 to buy their holdings has been advanced by 

 banks. It is notorious that many of these 

 farmers have paid much too high a price to 

 landowners, and when the crash comes, banks 

 will become owners of much of the land of 

 Great Britain. 



In the control of markets and transport, that 

 is to say, in the conveyance, distribution, and 

 selling of all farm produce, in sending cattle, 

 sheep, and pigs to districts where they could 

 be reared with the greatest economy and 

 success, and in sending fodder and food where 

 they are most needed, the National Council 

 of Agriculture, or Ministry of Agriculture, 

 would come into effective play. Nothing could 

 be more ludicrous or disheartening than the 

 present method of sending goods to salesmen 

 who are in close alliance with one another, and 

 who reap fortunes out of the charming trust- 

 fulness of the producers. Nothing could be 

 worse than the vested interest in markets with 

 the congestion of their mean streets. When 

 it comes to selling live stock the price often 



