SECTION M.— AGRICULTURE. 



STATE INTERVENTION IN 

 AGRICULTURE 



ADDRESS BY 



J. M. CAIE, M.A., B.L., B.Sc. (Agr.), 



PRESIDENT OF THE SECTION. 



Two years ago, Dr. Venn, who presided over this section during the 

 meetings of the Association at Norwich, deUvered a masterly address on 

 ' The Financial and Economic Resuhs of State Control in Agriculture.' 

 To-day my subject is ' State Intervention in Agriculture,' and for any 

 apparent infringement of his copyright I tender him an apology. The 

 reasons for my choice are twofold. In the first place, it is the custom, 

 very rightly, for those who have the honour to be presidents of sections 

 to deal with matters of which they have made a special study or have some 

 first-hand experience. Being a mere administrative official and not a 

 scientific worker, as the term is generally understood, I must, if I am to 

 follow the excellent precedent, restrict myself to the field in which I 

 happen to work. 



My second reason is less personal. In the economic and political condi- 

 tions of the world in recent years the importance of agriculture in the life 

 of the State, not only in this country but elsewhere, has received growing 

 recognition. That recognition may not always have been quite spon- 

 taneously accorded ; rather indeed it has been extorted by economic and 

 social forces of a most complex and compelling kind. Over-production 

 and under-consumption, of which we have heard so much, have thrust 

 agriculture to the middle of the stage and into the beam of a pale blue 

 limelight. The agriculturist, cast too often for the part of the starving 

 orphan, has raised his voice, now in lamentation, now in vituperation, 

 calling on the State for help, or fair play, or protection against some 

 industrial ogre or foreign invader. And the State, moved by his ' exceed- 

 ing bitter cry,' has played the part sometimes of the fairy godmother, 

 sometimes of the heavy father, and sometimes, so the farmer may say, 

 of the deaf and cunning uncle. But never probably, save in the war 

 years, have the State and the farmers been so closely interested in each 

 other. And that is the second reason for my choice, which I have made 

 in the hope that possibly a general survey of the relation of State and farmer 

 might be of some little value. In attempting that survey, I believe that, 

 despite the title of the paper, I shall trespass little if at all on that part of 

 the subject which was examined so penetratingly and expounded so 

 luminously by Dr. Venn. 



