ii8 Agriculture and the Community^. 



and provide the best social conditions for the workers, if 

 handled in units employing ample capital and modern 

 machinery. 



The enormous waste in marketing and distribution of 

 agricultural produce which occurs to-day must be 

 eliminated. In milk that can best be secured by organising 

 the distribution by local authorities and in other 

 commodities by an increase in the operations of consumers' 

 co-operative societies. Transport is a problem that will 

 have to be dealt with nationally. 



Finally the community should engage in farming 

 directly ; not only under the agricultural departments and 

 the agricultural committees, but local authorities should be 

 encouraged to run their own farms, and co-operative 

 societies should grow more of the products they distribute. 

 Even if our local authorities were to engage in the 

 production of the commodities which they have to buy 

 in the market for their institutions, and for the maintenance 

 of many public services, there would be a direct saving of 

 cost, which would do much to enable the workers engaged 

 in the industry to secure more reasonable conditions of 

 existence. 



What is the alternative to the policy I have outlined? 

 If we leave the agricultural industry to muddle along as 

 it is doing to-day, we must face a progressively 

 deteriorating land system. The present owners will neither 

 maintain nor manage the land properly. If we leave 

 farming to be the private speculation of those engaged in 

 it, we have either to face a system of protection or bounty, 

 or allow the land to be let down to the point where the 



