■486 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



however, the science of Agriculture has advanced, and a 

 good deal more has to be looked for in reclamation. Recent 

 experiments in reclamation or cultivation by raw hands have 

 not yielded altogether encouraging results. In the com- 

 prehensive labours undertaken in the period of the Unem- 

 ployed Boards, the employment of men admitted to such in 

 the reclamation of land has not proved entirely successful. 

 And in the English Land Colonisation Society, which was 

 fathered by a noted philanthropist, and supplied with money, 

 apart from subscriptions, by two great capitalists, I remember 

 that we had very curious proofs of the folly of the disregard 

 of the principle of selection of only famiglie ahili e attive, 

 as the Italian settlement precepts term it, in allotting hold- 

 ings to inexperienced and unskilled claimants. Small men 

 reclaiming holdings for themselves — with such assistance 

 as will be necessary-^may indeed do very good work and 

 further the national cause to a great extent. But it is 

 absolutely necessary that they should be to the manner 

 bred. And even so, scientific guidance will still in all prob- 

 ability prove advisable. The risk of failure by reason of 

 inexperience and want of skill has become so serious, and 

 Science has discovered so many useful aids to the work — 

 by the employment of appropriate fertilisers and decom- 

 posers, by suitable drainage and inoculation, and so on — 

 that skilled guidance must appear to have become indispen- 

 sable. And the work undertaken being, after all, designed 

 for the national benefit, one may well expect that such 

 skilled counsel should be forthcoming at national cost. 

 Settling on land which is cultivated already is a much easier 

 job. But even for that, as has been shown, it is by those 

 who have much experience in the supervision of the work 

 considered imperative that only experienced agriculturists 

 should be employed. Unquestionably there is much profit 

 for the community to be gained by reclamation and afforesta- 

 tion, and the credit side of the national balance sheet may 

 be substantially strengthened by careful attention to the 

 matter. 



The unification of the two conflicting interests now 

 engaged in Agriculture is a far more difficult matter, requiring 



