CH. Il] AGRICULTURAL POLICY 215 



of departments of agriculture would lead one to suppose that 

 a millennium was at hand. 



In former times, little was done for agriculture, and the 

 natural rate of progress was exceedingly slow. But with the 

 more humanitarian ideas of government that have come into 

 vogue during the last hundred years, this has been altered. 

 By attention to questions of land and its availability, transport, 

 and education, agricultural progress has been accelerated, to 

 the point in very many cases where capital has become the 

 limiting factor, and if this be not in turn attended to, progress 

 must go on at the old rate, and all that has been done will 

 count for little ; whereas if it be properly cared for, progress 

 may go on as before till some other factor becomes limiting. 

 The essential for the best government of an agricultural people 

 is consequently to recognise early the factor that is about to 

 limit progress, and attend chiefly to that. Unless all the 

 factors are kept up to proper condition progress will be almost 

 negligible, but at any one time one alone is probably most in 

 need of attention. 



The same rule applies to the progress of agriculture under 

 the later factors B. In the first place, it must be pointed out 

 that the incoming of B does not eliminate the necessity for 

 attention to A; the latter must also be kept up to the mark, 

 though all but the last two of them may in time reach a point 

 of practical perfection. But with regard to B proper, it must 

 again be recognised that all parts of the problem hang to- 

 gether and must be attended to at the same time. If cattle 

 are to be improved, their food supply, and the tools they are 

 to use, must be improved also. If better quality of fruit is to 

 be produced, manure must be used, and a market found for the 

 new produce ; and so on. 



In conclusion, therefore, it is evident that in settling the 

 policy to be pursued in any given country, there are many and 

 complex problems to be considered. For example, a country 

 like India may need comparatively little export trade, as she 

 can grow nearly everything that she requires within her own 

 borders, and the quality of her exports is not in general very 

 high, whereas a country like Brazil, though even larger, and 



