October 6, 1923] 



NA TURE 



513 



far greater confidence^ and evidence of the increasing 

 practical value of his work is rapidly accumulating. 

 This is particularly the case with advisory work in 

 milk production, a branch of feeding which lends 

 [itself more readily than most to carefully regulated 

 Irationing, owing to the ease with which the amount 

 [of product can be determined. Much success has also 

 [been met with in advisory work in pig-feeding, and 

 [to a less extent in the feeding of cattle, the lower 

 [degree of success in the latter case being due not so 

 fmuch to an inferior capability of the adviser to help 

 as to the difficulty of dispelling the tradition that beef 

 production represents the supreme accomplishment of 

 the British farmer, as to which there is nothing left 

 for him to learn. The work already accomplished 

 represents, however, but the very beginnings of 

 economy in the feeding of live-stock, and wasteful 

 feeding of both home-grown and purchased feeding- 

 stuffs for lack of the necessary advisory guidance is 

 still far too widely prevalent. 



Such are only a few of the aspects of advisory work, 

 which, if extended more widely, might exercise a very 

 profound effect upon the economy of the industry. 

 Such extension implies, however, greatly increased 

 resources in men and money and more efficient means 

 of bringing the advisory facilities to the notice of the 

 farmer. 



I am inclined, indeed, to think that a more efficient 

 propaganda is perhaps the first need of the situation, 

 for one finds in all parts of the country an astonishingly 

 large number of farmers who are totally unaware of 

 the existence of advisory facilities of any kind. A more 

 extensive propaganda will be useless, however, unless 

 accompanied by increased provision for advice, since 

 the present resources are already more than fully taxed 

 by the relatively moderate volume of calls for assistance 

 that now arise. Most of our counties have, at present, 

 only one agricultural adviser — some, indeed, have none 

 — and yet this slender organisation represents in large 

 measure the base of contact with the industry upon 

 which the whole pyramid of our advisory and educa- 

 tional work rests. It is here where I see the most 

 immediately profitable outlet for any further moneys 

 that may be available for agricultural education in the 

 near future. 



I have already alluded to the chemical gaps in our 

 specialised advisory organisation, and I might also 

 have indicated the similar and even less comprehensible 

 inadequacy in the provision for specialist advice in 

 economics ; but these are relatively small matters 

 compared with the paucity of the less highly specialised 

 but scientifically trained advisers of the county 

 organiser type, whose business it should be to secure 

 the confidence of the individual farmer by personal 

 contact, and to render him assistance either directly 

 in the simpler problems or, in more complex cases, 

 with the help of the specialist staff standing behind 

 the county staff, whereby a more widespread and real 

 appreciation of the practical value of agricultural 

 education and research than now prevails might 

 quickly be developed. 



A great extension of advisory work, such as I suggest, 

 must necessarily involve heavy expenditure, and 

 further, an exceptional measure of care in the selection 

 of men, since in the direct approach to the farmer 



NO. 2814, VOL. I 12] 



personal qualities may in the first instance count for 

 more than technical proficiency. Furthermore, if the 

 full measure of success is to be achieved, it is essential 

 that a more closely organised and intimate contact 

 should be established between the various units of the 

 advisory organisation, from the research station through 

 the scientific adviser, to the practical adviser. Our 

 present organisation is too indefinite and too widely 

 permissive in this respect and calls urgently for con- 

 sideration by all concerned, both county authorities 

 and advisory and research workers, with the view of 

 more effective co-ordination and co-operative effort. 



I have laid great stress upon the potentialities of 

 advisory work as a contribution to the alleviation of 

 the present crisis, but I cannot close without some 

 reference to the far greater contribution to the future 

 prosperity of British agriculture which we can make 

 through our educational system, if wisely pursued, in 

 the training of the farmers of the future. 



The existing facilities for organised agricultural 

 education — at least so far as universities and colleges 

 are concerned — are adequate to deal with the numbers 

 of students presenting themselves. There is indeed at 

 the moment a considerable excess output of the class 

 of student who is either unwilling or unable to take up 

 practical farming and must needs have a salaried post. 



Of more immediate concern is our comparative 

 failure to secure for our educational courses more than 

 a small fraction of the sons of farmers, upon whom 

 the future of the industry will largely rest. I have 

 testified to the greatly awakened interest in agricultural 

 education which has been displayed among farmers in 

 recent years, but it is yet far from having developed 

 into a conviction that such education is to be regarded 

 as a vitally essential part of the farmer's training. 

 One must perhaps be content with gradual advance 

 towards this goal by internal development, although 

 the possibilities of more rapid advance by external 

 pressure should not be overlooked. The enlightened 

 landowner might exert an influence more potent per- 

 haps than any other in filling our colleges with farmers' 

 sons, if in letting his farms — at any rate so far as 

 young applicants are concerned — he showed his faith 

 in agricultural education by giving preference where 

 possible to men who have received adequate instruction 

 in the principles of agriculture in addition to practical 

 experience. So long as the private ownership of land 

 continues, the landowner will have it in his power to 

 render in this respect the most powerful aid to the 

 progress of agricultural education, and by action along 

 these lines might exert more good in one year than is 

 attainable by many weary years of propaganda. 



Whatever the character of our land-tenure system 

 of the future, it is certain that sooner or later some 

 guarantee of efficiency for the productive occupation 

 of land will be demanded from the would-be farmer. 

 We cannot continue indefinitely, on one hand, to pro- 

 claim that the land is our greatest national asset, 

 to be maintained with the help of, and in the interests 

 of the State in a highly efficient state of productivity, 

 while, on the other hand, the use of the land is left 

 open to all, regardless of fitness for its effective use. 

 This vision of farming reduced to the status of medicine 

 and law as a close profession regulated by an entrance 

 examination, may perhaps be stigmatised as a horrible 



