A National Folic}). 63 



legal minimum wage. Each class is prepared to lean upon 

 the State, however much they may want freedom from 

 State control, where thev believe such freedom will serve 

 their own interests. The State cannot afford to shoulder 

 the burden of the industry, and at the same time give up 

 its right to ensure that the industry is making proper use 

 of the assistance it gives. The State must be prepared to 

 take direct action to see that the industry is making proper 

 use of the national resources, and of the State aid given. 



This means that the Ministry of Agriculture in England 

 and Wales, and the Board of Agriculture in Scotland, 

 must be given adequate powers to maintain a proper 

 standard of farming. These departments ought not merely 

 to be empowered to place their varied services at the 

 disposal of those engaged in the industry, if the latter see 

 fit to use them, but should be empowered to see that the 

 services are being- used, and to remove occupiers who are 

 not prepared to avail themselves of these services, and are 

 not making such use of the land as the public interest 

 requires, and to arrange for the farms being worked by 

 competent managers in the public interest. I shall return 

 to the methods of administration later. What I am con- 

 cerned with here is the change in attitude of the State 

 towards the industry. From being as they are to-day, 

 departments which act through suggestion and demon- 

 stration, endeavouring by lecture, leaflet and advice to 

 get agriculture to adopt certain courses and methods, 

 these departments would be made responsible for main- 

 taining a definite standard in the industry. 



What I have said of the necessity for enforcing proper 

 cultivation applies with even greater force to the equip- 



