172 THE LAND AND ITS PROBLEMS 



much modified by the House of Lords, and this from 

 mixed motives : some of the members, if indeed not all, 

 feared a recurrence of the unwise ploughing up orders 

 that characterized the administration of a few War 

 Executives — others, as owners, did not wish to see their 

 grass ploughed up. 



80 that, as the matter stands to-day, the only chance 

 of getting grass ploughed up — grass that should be 

 ploughed up from every point of view — lies in the 

 hope that the Cultivation Committees have indeed the 

 power to secure this under the requirements of " good 

 husbandry." It remains to be seen what will happen ; 

 but if the " good husbandry " clause proves insufficient 

 all our legislation and trouble will have been in vain, 

 for then the elaborate machinery which has been set up 

 will be of little use in securing agricultural development. 



Above all, if the Cultivation Committees are to be 

 successful, not only must they be composed of practical 

 agriculturists but they must receive the backing of the 

 mass of intelligent agriculturists in the country ; and 

 this implies, in the first case, that it is essential for the 

 leading agriculturists themselves to be determined to see 

 that the land is put to better use in the future, and 

 increased production won from the soil. 



Unfortunately there are large numbers of agriculturists 

 who are opposed to any control or guidance of the 

 industry ; and who are satisfied with production as it is, 

 so long as they are not bothered ! 



Yet the conferring of these powers upon administrative 

 bodies is no new experiment ; rather is it the retaining, 

 in a sounder form, of the powers given to the War 

 Executives, which acted in each county as the agents of 

 the Board of Agriculture (or of the Food Production 

 Department) during the last half of the war. 



