A National Folic)). 73 



of the representatives who would be elected to the 

 committees and boards I have sugfgested, to believe that 

 they will know enough about the industry to leave the 

 actual work to those who are competent to do it. Their 

 business in such cases will be to select the right people, 

 and if they are not competent to do that I cannot imagine 

 what other method could be devised to place the industry 

 in the hands of the people who can make the best use of 

 the land, and the scientific and technical knowledge at 

 our disposal. The mere possession of money and a desire 

 to engage in farming are not sufficient qualifications for 

 justifying a man getting possession of land. We have 

 tried that and we have the problem I have endeavoured 

 to state in earlier chapters. That we have had farming 

 by committees in the past, on co-operative and municipal 

 farms which have brought such farming into disrepute 

 is true, but the fault has generally arisen from the fact 

 that the committees did not know anything about farming 

 and so desired to run the farms by Committee. They 

 imagined that could be done by putting them in charge of 

 men whose principal qualification from the committee's 

 point of view, was that they were willing to undertake 

 the management for a wage a few shillings higher than 

 that of a ploughman, and had not enough self-respect tO' 

 insist that they should be allowed to do the work they 

 were appointed to do, even if they had the qualifications, 

 which was not often the case. 



There are three general lines along which the work of 

 the committees and boards may be developed. The first 

 is the grading up of farming under the present system so 



