116 The Board of Agriculture. 



because the reader may be interested to learn that Mr. 

 Chamberlain, though in the midst of all his Cape 

 troubles, at once responded most cordially to a letter I 

 very reluctantly wrote to him on the subject of sending 

 the books to the Colonies, and undertook to forward 

 them at once to the Australian Governors. I have also 

 to thank the Board for refusing to support my proposal 

 that the farm should be leased by the Government for 

 a term of years, and carried on till the new system of 

 farming had sufficiently made its way, as I now clearly 

 see that where you have Departments with hardly any 

 business men in them, the handing over of the farm to 

 the Government would probably have done more harm 

 than good, unless, of course, the services of Sir Horace 

 Plunkett could have been obtained, or Mr. Chamberlain 

 put in charge of the Department until it should be 

 started on a sound basis. 



The experience I have gained since the second 

 edition of this book was published clearly shows me that 

 whatever good the Board of Agriculture may be doing 

 in some directions is far outweighed by the pernicious 

 effect it has in misleading the farmer, and involving him 

 further and further with the manure merchant. The 

 teaching it is directly or indirectly responsible for is 

 not as it, of course, should be, in the direction of that 

 agriculture which stands firmly on its own feet, and 

 shows the farmer how to depend on his own eiiorts for 

 all, or nearly all, he requires. On the contrary, the 

 farmer is taught that if he wishes to grow heavier crops 

 he must go to the manure merchant, and that if he 

 wants to produce more meat he must go to the manure 

 merchant again. The Board may urge that it is not 

 responsible for this teaching, and that it hands over 

 the public funds to Colleges and other educational 

 institutions ; but is it not obvious that, on the qui faeit 

 per alium facit per se principle the Board is to blame for 

 money being spent in a way that is really adverse to 

 the agricultural interests of the country. This subject 



