56 THE AGRICULTURAL CLUB. 



you will observe that the only answer I have been able to secure 

 to my opening question " What is Farming ? " has been one 

 assumption on top of another. 



The other question " Who is Running the Industry ? " 

 brings equally indefinite results. The landlords apparently claim 

 to do so ; but, when the matter is put to the test, the State 

 has to take charge in default of any responsible body, and so 

 we have the Food Production Department, the Agricultural 

 Organisation Society, and other public or quasi-public bodies 

 taking the place of an association of the industry. 



It is reasonably evident to me that there are no definite 

 answers to the two questions I have put, and that the funda- 

 mental character of the industry is still to be bandied about as 

 an incident of fiscal and political controversies, with precedence 

 to the noisiest. 



The reorganisation of farming, like every other reorganisation, 

 must absolutely settle three basic conditions to secure success : 



1. A management vested with authority commensurate with respon- 



sibility. 



2. A dominant objective to give unity to the industry. 



3. A policy of management which reconciles the parties at interest, 



and gives reasonable assurance of a profit to the operators. 



All three are singularly lacking in the present conduct of 

 English Agriculture, and no provision has yet been made for 

 their establishment. In the prosperous days of English farm- 

 ing all three were present. If I read English history correctly, 

 the management was a solid body of landlords with political 

 power amply sufficient to discharge their responsibility to 

 the interests they represented. The dominant objective was 

 the profit of the landlords, who saw to it that the profit was 

 sufficient to enable them to reconcile the parties at interest by 

 meeting the social requirements of the time to farmer, labourer 

 and the State. It is by no means necessary that the same 

 management, or the same main objective, should be restored 

 to secure success. I can readily imagine several variations. 

 But it is certain that the tide of prosperity will depend for its 

 height and duration on the exact degree to which these condi- 

 tions are met. 



As to a dominant objective it is impossible within reasonable 

 limits of time to examine the consequences of more than one, and 

 I submit some considerations arising under a plan of manage- 

 ment aiming at " a reasonable profit to the farmer." All other 

 aims I shall judge in the light of their effect on this single interest. 

 I wish to make it clear that I express no opinion as to whether 

 this is the right objective ; I merely state that it is impossible 

 to frame a sound business policy directed to several partially 

 conflicting aims, and that I have selected one intelligent objective. 



