140 THE LAND AND ITS PROBLEMS 



are sent to these farms, often men not carefully selected, 

 and who are not good workers. Or else the Ministry 

 of Agriculture interferes with the manager of the farm, 

 and prescribes the method of farming ; in certain cases 

 a different method has been prescribed every six months. 

 All this is quite impossible. Once a good manager is 

 appointed he should have absolute control ; he should 

 choose his labourers, and devise his own scheme of 

 farming. 



This principle is as fundamental as it should be 

 obvious ; yet it has been entirely ignored by the Ministry 

 of Agriculture. 



The result, — a complete failure of the State farms, 

 and the admission on the part of the Ministry, after two 

 years' bitter experience, " that farming cannot be con- 

 veniently managed from Whitehall " ! ^ The admission 

 is valuable, but the experiment has been costly, and the 

 loss could have been avoided had the Ministry really 

 studied how Demonstration farms are managed in 

 countries in which they have been a great success. 



1 Vide the debates in Parliament on the Ministry of Agriculture 

 vote, April 19, 1921. 



