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Ministers of Agriculture have effectively impeded any 

 real progress towards securing that stability in pros* 

 pority for the chief sources of our wealth Ganadcna 

 and Agriculture which their importance warrants. 

 (Janaderia and Agriculture are our mainstay: they are 

 the life and death of our existence as a Nation. 



We spend considerable sums in the interest of Agri- 

 culture and Ganaderia: although comparatively noth- 

 ing compared to the funds devoted to a like object by 

 the United States Government. On agriculture alone 

 the U.S.A. spends $22,000,000 gold annually. We re- 

 ceive no practical benefits from our expenditure. 



If we invite the opinion of any of our camp dwell* 

 ers as to the utility and benefits he receives from the 

 Department of Agriculture, the answer is always un- 

 satisfactory. No one has more than the vaguest ideas of 

 what is done or even what is attempted by the State in 

 the interests of the country folk. 



The question is so often put as to the actua] be- 

 nefits derived from the existence of the Department of 

 Agriculture, that I am convinced that if it were abol- 

 ished to-morrow, outside the employees actually affect- 

 ed by their dismissal, nobody would be the wiser. In 

 the long run one is convinced that the utility Cannot 

 be very appreciable, otherwise it would not be discuss- 

 ed, it would be felt effectively if it were real. 



There is one section whieh comes in for more notice 

 than the rest, that devoted to Statistics. But its labours 

 are not taken advantage of, either through lack of 

 knowledge as to their utility, through the absence of ge- 

 neral education sufficient to appreciate their use, or 

 through the haphazard way they are placed before the 

 public both as regards time and detail. 



Annually the office concerned with the computa- 

 tion of the areas sown issues a series of figures: but the 

 deductions and prognostications are left to those inter- 

 ested to deduce for themselves. 



Of course it is useless to throw the blame for the 

 poor popular opinion regarding the Department on the 

 officials, who at least attempt to fulfil, their duties in 

 many cases without any particular appreciation on the 

 part of the State. The blame lies in the system adopt- 

 ed. It is sufficient to make the acquaintance of, say, the 

 North American Department of Agriculture to appre- 

 ciate the difference. 



Statistics to be of any practical use must be com- 

 plete. 



We -do not only want to hear what the future pro- 



