Wanted — Government Experimental Farms. 35 



for there cannot be the slightest doubt that had it 

 had experimental farms and agricultural schools the 

 principles I have laid down, and proved the success of, 

 would long ago have been brought to the notice of our 

 agriculturists and generally adopted. For, as we have 

 seen, the farmers in Normandy, aided as they were by 

 Government schools and farms, seem to have had no 

 hesitation in at once altering their systems in accord- 

 ance with the requirements of the times, and there can 

 be no doubt that the same results would have occurred 

 here had similar facilities existed for the diffusing of 

 agricultural knowledge, and full and timely information 

 as to all the world-wide causes which would necessitate 

 a complete change of farming system. 



But it may be urged that, as we have hitherto done 

 fairly well without Government schools and farms, 

 none are needed now. Such reasoning — and it is a too 

 common course of reasoning — shows how dangerous it 

 is to rely on the experience of the past for lessons for 

 the future, for it is seldom that the whole conditions of 

 the past are exactly repeated, and there is, therefore, 

 always a great risk run of applying to a different set of 

 circumstances conclusions which were once fairly sound 

 for circumstances only partially parallel. In former 

 times no sudden change was required, and therefore the 

 slow processes of improvement which resulted from the 

 example of the most intelligent proprietors and agri- 

 culturists answered fairly well. But when a sudden 

 change of front, owing to the wonderfully rapid increase 

 of foreign competition, was required, tlie knowledge 

 necessary for at once changing our system did not exist, 

 and there was no machinery ready, in the shape of 

 agricultural schools and experimental farms,, for pro- 

 viding it ; and the result is that while Normandy 

 farmers, as we have seen, have at once been able to 

 reorganise their farming system, and thrive accordingly, 

 we have changed but little ; and when we have changed 

 in the direction of laying down land to grass, this has 



