20 tf SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



England alone stands unconvinced. It is of course difficult to measure 

 the extent to which general education contributes to mental alertness in 

 later years, but there is often among farmers, and among the rural popula- 

 tion generally, a certain lack of elasticity, a certain dullness of outlook, 

 which will have to disappear if agriculture is to take its rightful place 

 among the other great industries of the country. The skilled manager, 

 the skilled man, the educated manager, the educated man — if it pays to 

 employ these, and it does appear to do so in other industries, then much 

 more should it be remunerative in agriculture, where the calls on the 

 management are so multifarious, the task so difficult, and the skill 

 demanded of the manual worker so very varied. 



Let us now examine how a development of this kind affects the three 

 partners in the agricultural business as we know it to-day — the landlord, 

 the farmer, and the manual worker. 



The landlord may, or may not, remain as a permanent partner in the 

 agricultural industry ; but while he does remain the power that he 

 possesses of influencing the whole industry is enormous. Those of us 

 who were privileged to hear Lord Bledisloe's address when he was Presi- 

 dent of this section will well remember his almost passionate appeal to 

 the landowners of to-day to follow the example set them by their illustrious 

 predecessors, and take upon themselves the position of leaders and 

 organisers of the agricultural industry. Some there are of course who, 

 like Lord Bledisloe himself, have taken up this burden, and whose names 

 will be remembered as we remember those of the great leaders of the 

 eighteenth century. ' The agricultural community in Britain to-day,' 

 said Lord Bledisloe at Hull in 1922, ' above all else needs enlightened 

 leadership, just as agriculture needs efficient organisation ; and the land- 

 owner, if, after due training, he would but take his proper position, should 

 be both leader and chief organiser.' This need for leadership all over the 

 world is as great to-day as it was then, and, while the owners of the soil 

 supply leaders in almost every branch of this country's activities, they 

 undoubtedly do so in smaller numbers in the very industry from which 

 they have derived their position. This leadership is only possible to-day 

 through suitable education, and if it is possible to provide suitable educa- 

 tion for any class in the community, it should be possible in this case. 

 The preparatory and public schools of this country, great as their faults 

 may be, do undoubtedly at their best furnish an education which in 

 certain aspects is surpassed by none, and provide a training in citizenship 

 and leadership which it is difficult to equal. Specialisation and vocational 

 training are, however, relegated to the last years of a public-school career, 

 and so far in this country agriculture has been treated as a purely vocational 

 subject, to be dealt with shortly in the secondary school as a preliminary 

 to a fuller course in the subject at a subsequent stage. So the prospective 

 landlord passes from the school stage to the university, where now he may, 

 if he be so minded, spend the whole of his time completing his cultural 

 and technical education and training himself for this occupation of 

 leadership. And if the schools and universities of this country live up 

 to their reputation, and if the latter seriously attend to the provision of 

 the most suitable curricula, the education and training will be sufficient. 

 In Lord Bledisloe's words, ' their traditions are great, but their future 



