A National Policy. 67 



the Board of Agriculture of Scotland, massed together to 

 show the " waste " of public money. No attempt is made 

 to classify the officials, to show what different classes of 

 work are being done, nor to show what the money is being 

 spent upon. A case may be made out for making better 

 use of the officials and the expenditure, but the wholesale 

 denunciation so common, indicates a lack of a sense of 

 proportion. Relatively to the number of persons engaged 

 in the industry the number of officials is small. When 

 comparisons are made with other industries, it should be 

 remembered that much of the work done for agriculture 

 by the State is done by the other industries for themselves. 

 It is because agriculture is carried on as a small scale 

 industry that the State has had to step in and do' the work 

 of research, experiment and demonstration, which large- 

 scale industries do for themselves. 



We have been groping towards a scheme of organisa- 

 tion to give the community a more direct control over 

 the industry. Working along with the State departments 

 we have now Agricultural Executive Committees in each 

 county, representative of the public authorities, landlords, 

 farmers and workmen. These Committees elect represen- 

 tatives to Agricultural Councils in England and Scotland, 

 and these Councils appoint Executive Committees which 

 act as Advisory Committees for the departments. These 

 Committees and Councils have been too recently formed 

 for any opinion to be passed as to the efficiency of the 

 system of organisation. It is a distinct advance on 

 anything that previously existed, and given a definite 

 national policy in agriculture would probably form a suffi- 



