A National Policy. 75 



proper maintenance and cultivation of the land are 

 dependent on the guaranteed prices. If, as I believe will 

 be the case, the policy of guaranteed prices is departed 

 from, the provisions of the Act for enforcing good 

 husbandry also lapse. But, in any case, powers to enforce 

 good husbandry which are avowedly taken as a comple- 

 ment to guaranteed prices cannot be effective unless the 

 guarantee of prices is a substantial safeguard to the farmer 

 who is prepared to farm well. It has to be remembered 

 that to the majority of farmers the guaranteed prices 

 for cereals mean very little, and to a considerable number 

 nothing at all. To make the compulsory powers depend 

 upon these guaranttes is to create the presumption in the 

 minds of the members of the committees that compulsion 

 ought only to be exercised where State aid is received. 



The powers gi-ven under the Act limit the control of 

 cultivation to securing by service of notices the mainten- 

 ance, so far as practicable, of land, " clean and in a good 

 state of cultivation and fertility and in good condition " 

 and the improvement of existing methods of cultivation 

 " without injuriously affecting the persons interested in 

 the land." Unreasonable failure to comply with a notice 

 served is punishable by fine, but the power to determine 

 tenancies or take possession in case of default has been 

 repealed. Where good husbandry and food production 

 have been prejudiced by the gross mismanagement of an 

 estate, the Minister of Agriculture may make an order 

 appointing a receiver and manager to act on behalf of the 

 owner with wide powers of management. The most 

 significant thing is the repeal of the power to determine 



