384 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS 



a tendency on the part of the Board to pose as 

 the farmer's friend, and to represent the railways 

 as, in effect, the farmer's enemies. In the latter 

 respect there has recently been a more generous 

 recognition of what the railways have done, or, 

 at least, have either sought to do, or are willing 

 to do, provided only the agriculturists will meet 

 them half-way. But there would still seem to 

 be a disposition to get the farmers throughout 

 the country to look to a centralized Government 

 department in London for guidance and direction 

 in all their wants. The recent appointment of 

 " honorary correspondents to the Board of 

 Agriculture " is a case in point. We have been 

 told that "it would be the duty of these 

 correspondents to make known to all the 

 farmers in their respective districts what the 

 Board of Agriculture could do for them, and 

 to make known to the Board of Agriculture 

 what were the wants of the farmers in their 

 particular districts." To a certain extent this 

 arrangement may serve a distinctly useful pur- 

 pose. But the said honorary correspondents 

 are to be chosen from among the " landowners, 

 land agents, and farmers " of each of nineteen or 

 twenty districts, and when the term " farmers " 

 is sub-divided into " gentleman farmers " and 

 " working farmers " (on the lines stated in the 



