THE STATE AS FARMER 43 



of money to a dullard or a sluggard is not 

 a sufficient check on carelessness. The State 

 requires the final power to change its staff. 



I want to make my point clear in this 

 matter. I am not writing to explain elabor- 

 ately the beautiful working of nature in this 

 plant-food and soil-water system. There are 

 plenty of good books which will tell the farmer 

 better than I can all there is to be told. But 

 the State is not served by the knowledge 

 which a man's brain contains unused, and 

 the State cannot be sure without taking 

 some oversight that each farmer reads the 

 good books and profits by them. But the 

 State can appoint a man (or men) to see that 

 the operations necessary to the due carrying 

 out of the best programme for assisting nature 

 are fulfilled. It can say to the farmer : 

 ' You may not be interested to know why 

 good — sometimes deep — ploughing, harrowing, 

 weeding and manuring all help to make the 

 soil reach that moist, aerated, warm condition 

 which causes the seed to burst and the roots 

 to feed ; but you must be so good as to 

 believe that this is so, and act accordingly.' 

 At present each man does what he likes, 



