90 THE FARMER AND THE NEW DAY 



us much would be received with great disapproval in 

 some quarters. No one who has come into even super- 

 ficial contact with the organized activities of agricul- 

 ture in almost any enlightened European country can 

 but feel keenly the loss to American agriculture through 

 our failure to profit by European experience. Indi- 

 viduals have written about conditions, the government 

 has published a few documents on the subject, and five 

 years ago the American Commission made its tour of 

 Europe for the purpose of studying chiefly agricultural 

 credit, and our present farm land bank system is due 

 in great measure to the Commission. We have had a 

 few reports from our consuls concerning agriculture. 

 Experts have scoured the world in a search for new 

 varieties of plants. But we have quite neglected to 

 provide official expert means for learning, for example, 

 about business cooperation in agriculture, which is 

 one of our most serious problems and in which the 

 Europeans are clearly our masters. There is every 

 argument for maintaining a group of qualified repre- 

 sentatives of the Department of Agriculture constantly 

 in service in foreign lands, studying all phases of the 

 rural problem, and bringing back to us such lessons as 

 are applicable here. 



Why should not we, in common with other nations, 

 consider agriculture after the war? England has its 

 Selborne report. Books are being written in France. 

 The Italian War Cabinet has issued a statement on the 

 subject. It is clear, is it not, that the agricultural 

 policy of Europe will profoundly affect our own agri- 

 culture? Available material from England seems to 

 indicate a purpose " to make the Empire independent 

 of other countries in respect to food supplies." Per- 

 haps this aim is the proper one. But what of its effect 



