44 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



supposed to be to follow. In such a matter as the practice 

 of Agriculture the Government could not compel. But it 

 could suggest and encourage, and there were a good many 

 things in respect of which it could afford effective, though 

 it were not yet in a large sense material, assistance. There 

 were railway and market authorities to influence. There 

 was road-making to stimulate and regulate, to provide means 

 of transport. And there were other things. Tariff policy, 

 as observed, did not come in till much later, when the 

 battle was already won. And a war emergency was not 

 thought of in those days of division and State rivalry, 

 when the sleepy " Bund " presided over the destinies of 

 the future Empire, and you might on a day's ride cross 

 half a dozen frontiers and be challenged at every one of 

 them. 



It was science and research, it was the discovery of our 

 practical superiority and its causes, the revelation of new 

 secrets of chemistry, biology and the rest of it, which in- 

 inspired the idea. Governments, like the devil, render 

 no service without the promise of a personal reward. But 

 up to a certain point the interest of the governed was found 

 to jump with that of the seekers after what Lord Randolph 

 has expressively called " votes, votes, votes ! " The 

 first foundation was, as it happened, already laid in the 

 shape of education, at institutions (under this particular 

 head) in advance of ours, laboratories, and the first 

 germs pushing forth of organisation. These promising 

 points were turned to account, and on them a " National 

 Agricultural Policy " was reared up, which it has been 

 found not only possible but also most desirable to follow 

 up to the present day and the results of which proclaim 

 themselves in the account given by Mr. Middleton of German 

 Agriculture. 



By this new policy of 1894 — which w^as a totally different 

 thing from the old— the Emperor did not attain what he had 

 made his main aim. Even within the space of twenty years 

 of continued assiduous labour he did not make his country 

 independent of foreign supply— though he came nearer to 

 that point than has been pleasant to ourselves. He cer- 



