A National Policy. 79 



would mean a drastic interference with the management 

 of agricultural land and with farming. But the extent 

 of mismanaged estates and inefficiently-farmed land is too 

 great for us to hope that less drastic measures will suffice. 

 Sir Daniel Hall's opinion is striking: — "The most 

 effective lever tO' secure the better farming that is now 

 needed in the national interest would be to give the State 

 powers to take over any land that is being inadequately 

 used ; the State could then develop this land either on the 

 large farm system or by settling it with small-holding 

 colonies. In this way pressure would be put on the 

 owners of land to make the most of it, pressure arising on 

 the one hand from increased competition owing to 

 displacement and on the other from the implied threat of 

 dispossession if the occupier is allowed to farm badly. But 

 if the State is to be given power to take over land that is 

 not being fully utilised, it must also be prepared to farm 

 the land itself on one or other of the methods indicated. 

 The justification for such drastic measures is the critical 

 situation into which the nation has drifted and the 

 imperative necessity of developing the production of food 

 on our own soil, but these measures cannot be adopted 

 until the State is ready to manage the land itself." 

 (" Agriculture After the War," p. 65.) 



Demonstration Farms. 



The second line of work the Committees should under- 

 take is in the development of new methods of farming, I do 

 not mean the experimental work which is done at present 

 by the Agricultural Colleges and the various research 



