IMMEDIATE REORGANIZATION NEEDED 37 



been recruited rapidly enough to maintain the standard, 

 still less to ensure progress. It was to education that one 

 looked to improve the quality of the men entering upon 

 the business of farming, whereby the competition for and 

 the management of the limited area of land available 

 would be intensified. But the war has cut athwart all 

 such schemes for slow development ; the wholesale dis- 

 organization of our social system which must ensue not 

 only provides the excuse and opportunity for, but prac- 

 tically necessitates the adoption of much more rapid and 

 drastic methods of regenerating agriculture in order to 

 meet the double purpose of providing food and employ- 

 ment within these islands. 



Assuming, then, that the present position of agri- 

 culture is unsatisfactory and is likely to become 

 worse as a consequence of the war, it is necessary 

 to be prepared with an agricultural policy, in which 

 the permanent interest of the State must be held 

 to override the immediate interests of the existing 

 occupiers of land, however content they may be with 

 the profits they derive from the present system. No 

 sudden revolution is possible if only for the reason set 

 out above, that the number of farmers possessed of the 

 desired standard of skill and knowledge falls short of 

 what is required for the proper utilization of our land, 

 and the addition to that number must be a work of time. 

 Much, however, can be done to start better methods 

 and to break down the barriers which confine access to 

 the land to a comparatively limited class ; what is 

 needful is that the action of the State, which is neces- 

 sarily limited, shall be such as will have a continuous 

 and increasing effect upon the industry. We take as 

 starting-point that the State must secure the more 



