M.— AGRICULTURE 259 



quantities and of irregular quality by hosts of unrelated producers have 

 been only too apparent in the past ; and the weakness of purely voluntary 

 co-operation as a remedy has been illustrated more than once. (The 

 comparative failure of the Scottish Milk Agency scheme may be cited as 

 an instance.) In view of all this, the difficulties and controversies to 

 which the Marketing Acts and their derived schemes have given rise may 

 be a matter for some surprise, but only, I think, to those not familiar with 

 all the facts. One fact is the strong individualism of the British farmer, 

 begotten of tradition, experience, and his whole way of life. Sometimes, 

 in the modern world, individualism may be a handicap ; but the modern 

 world too can show us many instances in which its absence is even more 

 to be deplored. In this country most of us still believe that, in the words 

 of John Barbour, ' Freedom is ane noble thing.' We must, however, 

 retain our sense of perspective, and it is possible to exaggerate the degree 

 of subservience to which farmers are subjected by a scheme which a 

 majority of them was free to accept or reject and which, when accepted, 

 is administered by their own representatives. Another and an important 

 fact is that the marketing schemes are of a novel and necessarily compli- 

 cated kind. Experience has to be gained, experiments have to be made, 

 the engine has to be run in, mistakes in driving, sometimes serious mis- 

 takes, are inevitable for a time. Patience and tolerance are required. 

 It is better surely to adjust the bearings and tighten loose nuts than to 

 throw the spanner into the works and wreck the whole machine. For 

 even the critic must admit that the Acts and the schemes are at least 

 earnest attempts to remedy serious defects in one important side of 

 British farming. 



The subject is being treated in a separate paper this morning and I do 

 not propose to discuss it in any further detail. But I will conclude my 

 reference to it by quoting the opinion of one authority who has written : 

 ' The Marketing Acts are the equipment for a great experiment in the 

 possibility of farmers organising their industry themselves, with due 

 regard to the interests of the consumers. If the experiment succeeds, it 

 may postpone indefinitely such drastic changes in the structure of agri- 

 culture as those which are taking place in Soviet Russia. If it fails, not 

 less but more control will be inevitable.' How many of you will agree 

 with that view I do not know. 



Having considered briefly the methods by which the State helps the 

 farmer by laying restrictions on him for his good, and by handing him the 

 keys with which to open, if he will, the palace called Organised Marketing, 

 where the enchanted princess, disguised as the British housewife, awaits 

 him, let us now, in the third place, glance for a moment at the other 

 ways, some of them quite direct, in which he is aided and supported. 

 Fortunately, it has been unnecessary for me to seek out all the facts from 

 the numerous and sometimes rather elusive official publications and records 

 in which they are contained, for that difficult task was most ably performed 

 two years ago by Dr. Venn, to whose address I refer you. At the levels 

 then current, the gross total of financial assistance afforded to agriculture, 

 including forestry, and allowing for local taxation reliefs, amounted to 

 upwards of thirty-three and a half million pounds, from which he deducted 



