August i, 191 8] 



NATURE 



427 



lleets then being constructed. The Government 

 ordered inquiries, but did nothing ; the political 

 philosophy of the day was laissez faire — so long as 

 food was cheap it mattered nothing if farmers went 

 bankrupt and agriculture were ruined. Farmers 

 and landowners struggled manfully against adver- 

 sity, but many went under ; the period was one 

 of the saddest and most tragic in our rural history. 



It was soon realised that grass farming was 

 cheaper and less risky than arable farming. Be- 

 tween 1870 and 1900 the area of arable land in 

 the United Kingdom fell from 24 to 19*5 million 

 acres, and the pasture land rose from 22 to 28 

 million acres. At the l>eginning of the present 

 century prices began to rise and farming to mend, 

 but the farmer had learnt that. he must depend on 

 himself alone, and so he followed a system of 

 husbandry which involved the minimum of risk 

 and gave the maximum of return for the capital 

 employed. 



When war broke out it became apparent (as, 

 indeed, experts had long realised) that grass farm- 

 ing, while beneficial to the individual, is not 

 specially beneficial to the State. It does not pro- 

 duce anything like so much food per acre as arable 

 land, and in particular it does not yield the bulk 

 of cheap carbohydrate and protein that the nation 

 needs. To the laissez-faire politician this did not 

 matter; to a nation at war, however, it was vital. 



The Committee draws from this historical review 

 the general conclusion that the British farmer will 

 not grow corn to any large extent unless he has 

 some confidence that prices will be sufficient to 

 repay expenditure. Agriculture is a business run 

 for profit like any other business. On the political 

 system in vogue at the end of last century the 

 farmer gave up grain production because he had 

 no guarantee that prices w'ould remain at a re- 

 munerative level : they might always fall below 

 the 345. or thereabouts wh'ch it then cost to grow 

 wheat. If the nation requires wheat to be grown 

 here (and if it does not, "our reference is mislead- 

 ing, our opinions are erroneous, and this Report 

 is waste paper"), the Committee insists that this 

 risk of unremunerative prices must be borne by the 

 community. Of course the farmer must in return 

 accept certain responsibilities; he cannot guaran- 

 tee delivery of so much wheat, because of the 

 dominating influence of the seasons, but he can 

 at any rate be compelled to raise his standard of 

 farming and to pay decent wages. This recom- 

 mendation has already been adopted and passed 

 into law ; unfortunately, the Committee states, the 

 Act is a war-time measure only, and cannot have 

 its full effect unless it becomes a permanent 

 statute. 



This is the central feature of the Report. 

 Assuming it is carried out, the Committee makes 

 further important recommendations. First, it 

 asks for a survey of the condition of agricultural 

 land throughout the kingdom from the point of 

 view of its utilisation for food production, and 

 it recommends that the Board of Agriculture 

 shall have the power of temporarily superseding 

 h.ndowners or dispossessing tenants in case of bad 

 NO. 2544, VOL. lOl] 



management. More cottages should be erected, 

 and more definite steps taken to encourage the 

 growth of sugar-beet. The Development Com- 

 mission should no longer be barred, as at present^ 

 from making advances to associations trading for 

 profit. .Alongside all this must go greater pro- 

 vision for agricultural education and research 

 work. The United States spends above 4,000,000/. 

 annually on agricultural education and research ; 

 France more than i,ooo,oooL ; Canada, 840,000/. ; 

 Prussia (in 1910), 490,000/. ; but the United 

 Kingdom only about 310,000/. 



The Committee was very sympathetic to research 

 work and agricultural education, as was only to 

 be expected from its personnel. " The research 

 work already being done," it says, "is quite 

 admirable, but it needs stronger support yet from 

 public funds. We reiterate that this is public 

 expenditure which wi'll bring in to the State a 

 manifold return." "The evidence that has been 

 laid before us has amply shown the ultimate value 

 of pure scientific research and the dependence of 

 the development of the industry upon investiga- 

 tion that is independent of any apparently immedi- 

 ate practical end." It is further clearly recognised 

 that the old policy of underpaying the workers is 

 futile and uneconomical. Some of the best 

 workers are attracted to the -Colonies and Depen- 

 dencies. 



With refreshing vigour the Committee insists 

 on the absolute necessity for ample provision for 

 education. The- system of agricultural education 

 in England and Wales is found to differ from 

 the Irish or Scottish, and in the judgment of the 

 Committee is less effective. The scheme itself is 

 sound and provides a thoroughly good ground- 

 work for expansion, but the execution is faulty. 

 Too much is left to the discretion of the county 

 councils, which can carry out or shirk their 

 responsibilities as they please. 



Rates and votes are the main excuses for in- 

 action, and these can be very potent. The Com- 

 mittee urges that the responsibility for agricultural 

 education in England and Wales should be defi- 

 nitely placed on the Board of Agriculture, which 

 should take over existing staffs, colleges, and in- 

 stitutes from the county councils and run them out 

 of Imperial funds and not out of the rates. If 

 this were done much of the prejudice against 

 agricultural education would undoubtedly dis- 

 appear. Further, the Committee recommends that 

 an improved ruralised curriculum for elementary 

 and secondary schools should be laid down, and 

 better prospects provided for rural teachers. 

 Existing farm institutes and colleges should be 

 developed so as to afford adequate opportunities 

 for higher education to all who desired it. The 

 present system of small demonstration plots 

 should be extended ; there should be demonstration 

 and illustration farms where new and improved 

 methods of farming could be shown as part and 

 parcel of the actual system of farming. The 

 method is found useful in Canada and might well 

 be tried here. .A certain number of large farms 

 should be established on purely business lines, 



