SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.—F. 415 
technique of crop production. Lowering of costs of production and distribution. 
Biological advances; drought-resisting and early maturing varieties. Engineering 
advances ; harvesting machinery and the tractor; changes in consumption. 
Economic consequences of the spread of mechanisation and the use of new wheat 
varieties. The extension of the wheat area into drier and colder regions. 
The position of Europe ; Europe is the market for the world’s surplus wheat, but 
remains also one of the chief wheat-growing regions. The contrast between the 
objectives in agricultural policy in the new and the old countries respectively. 
European agriculture founded on a tradition of the peasantry. The influence of this 
tradition on farm technique; its political and social aspects; its consequences in 
national policy. Tariffs and other protective measures. The degree of artificiality 
which has developed in consequence of the restrictive measures adopted by importing 
countries. Wide divergences in wheat prices between free importing countries and 
protectionist countries. 
Measures of artificial control in exporting countries; the wheat pools and the 
Federal Farm Board. The effect of their policy on the present depression. 
The reappearance of Russia as an exporter; Russia’s wheat programme; its 
effect on the world situation. 
Summary of present position. The expectation for the future. 
Discusston upon the Report of the ‘ Macmillan ’ Committee upon Finance 
and Industry, introduced by Mr. P. Barrett WHALE. 
Friday, September 25. 
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS by Prof. E. Cannan on The Changed Outlook in 
regard to Population, 1831-1931 (see page 110). 
Dr. Raymonp Unwin.—Town and Country Planning : its Use in securing 
the better Distribution of Industry and Population and its Effect on 
Land Values. 
The increasing scale of activities, the growing interdependence of industries and 
the adoption of motor transport have changed the scope of Town Planning, which 
has become, in the new Bill, Town and Country Planning. Laying-out of new roads 
and open spaces, allocation of areas for dwellings, shops or industries, on the assump- 
tion that the whole area must be regarded as potential building land, has proved 
inadequate for modern needs. 
The efficiency of industry and commerce, the welfare of the people and the needs 
of local administration, all demand the better distribution of industry and population 
over the region; the prevention of sporadic development; the protection of the 
highways from ribbon building. More compact and self-sustaining units of develop- 
ment are needed, provided with adequate open land for recreation, each equipped 
to minister to the everyday needs of its inhabitants. Suburban development must 
be grouped into planned units round local centres, and further out there must be 
planned other satellite units, and garden cities. 
In the nineteenth century it was held that if owners used their land for the most 
profitable purpose, this would promote the common welfare. The congestion and 
squalor which resulted in large towns forced thinking people to realise that the indi- 
vidual interests of a multitude of owners do not coincide with the public good. The 
dangling of a carrot of increment before the reluctant owner, and even the additional 
spur of a tax on values, were plausible expedients, so long as increased wealth was 
regarded as synonymous with the public good, and owners held back their land from 
development. 
Conditions have changed, and traditions weakened. Where land is held in small 
parcels, it is now evident that the best use of it, whether for private or public interest, 
can only be secured by a degree of foresight and co-ordinated planning beyond the 
