M.— AGRICULTURE. 209 



to a time when farmers up and down the country will feel that there is 

 something worth while in an education and a standard of culture and 

 technical knowledge beyond that to which they have been accustomed, 

 and when they will be prepared adequately to remunerate good men whose 

 output is high, and when the men themselves will realise that only if they 

 have adequate education and training can they expect to earn wages 

 comparable with those paid in urban industries ? 



I desire to turn now to two other aspects of agriculture in relation 

 to national education, one of which I regard as having very great signifi- 

 cance from the point of view of the industry itself, and the other as being 

 at this stage in the development of the world of paramount importance 

 to every civilised community. It has long been the complaint of persons 

 interested in agriculture that it is very difficult to arouse intelligent 

 interest in the minds of those persons in the country who are not either 

 directly or indirectly concerned with the industry. There have, of course, 

 been times in the history of every country when circumstances such as 

 scarcity of food, or even the possibility of actual starvation, have drawn 

 the attention of the whole population to this question. Under such cir- 

 cumstances governments may have to act precipitately and commit the 

 country to this or that policy without sufficient consideration. Such a 

 course is fraught with much danger, especially when dealing with an 

 industry like agriculture in which changes can only come slowly and 

 gradually. In the present day, when our needs are satisfied by produce 

 from all parts of the world, and when only a small portion of the food 

 consumed both in the towns and in the country is provided by our own 

 soil, is it not time that some effort was made to inform the whole body of 

 consumers, not only of the way in which the food is produced, but of the 

 manner of life of those who produce it, and of the mode of its arrival in 

 their midst ? So smoothly does the machinery of production and distribu- 

 tion appear to work that the consumer is apt to think it automatic, and 

 to take the arrival of these necessaries and luxuries almost as the falling of 

 manna from heaven. Only by education, only by creating an informed 

 opinion about agriculture among both the urban and rural populations 

 in this country, can the mass of the people come to realise the peculiar 

 circumstances of the farming community, and the difficulties with 

 which their business is faced, and the particular problems that affect the 

 countryside as distinct from the towns. 



To proceed still further, Sir Daniel Hall, in his Presidential Address 

 last year, emphasised the fact that the continued expansion of the earth's 

 population and of the white races in particular, as representing the highest 

 material standard of living, will demand either a great expansion in the 

 area of land under cultivation, or an intensification of production in tli3 

 area at present utilised. It is apparent from the papers that have been 

 written in America by Dr. E. D. Ball, 6 that, even in the United States 

 which has up till recently been a large exporter of food, the question of 

 a national agricultural policy is regarded as most urgent. He asserts 

 that the United States will only maintain her world position and 



6 Dr. E. D. Ball : ' Shall we have a Policy of Future National Development ? ' ' The 

 Future of Agricultural Research.' ' The Need of a Food Supply for an Increasing 

 Population.' 



1927 P 



