120 THE STATE AS FARMER 



if our organisers — when we are real masters 

 of our own land — themselves alone appealed 

 to higher technical knowledge. And it will 

 be better still when we have demanded that 

 every citizen who desires to devote his life 

 to the land shall take his degree in land know- 

 ledge and get his diploma before he is allowed 

 ' to practise? 



Forestry is included in the Board of 

 Agriculture's scheme of education, and this 

 educational and advisory policy is still pursued 

 although the counties in solemn conclave, 

 unless my memory deceives me, have testified 

 to the Government that they cannot afford 

 to finance forests ! If county councils them- 

 selves cannot deal with an eighty-year scheme, 

 is it not time for the State, for every reason 

 and from every point of view, to resume 

 possession at once ? 



The whole educational scheme which has 

 been taken in hand on behalf of agriculture 

 is, I fear, to a very large extent neither more 

 nor less than a farce. The most obvious 

 result of it until quite recently was simply 

 an ill-concealed sneer on the part of the farmer, 

 who boasted openly that he had no use for 



