1920.] 



Speech by the Minister of AoRicrLTUEE. 



821 



of ** team play," to give farmers and agriculture the latest and 

 best information with regard to the developments of science. 

 We are working up all those agencies. They are all, of course, 

 co-ordinated under the Intelligence Department of the ^linistry, 

 which is presided over with so much distinction and ability by 

 Sir Daniel Hall. This is not merely a policy of theory, because 

 it is already producing" very remarkable practical results. I 

 think most of the progressive farmers in the country are 

 aware of the wonderful work which has been done by 

 Professor Biffen and others in producing new varieties of seed 

 which are calculated to resist some of the risks of our climate, 

 and to show a heavier yield. Many farmers who are not 

 progressive are using wheat such as Little Joss. Yeoman, and 

 so forth, without realising that the creation of those wheats is 

 due to scientific work in the laboratory under the inspiration 

 of the Ministry of Agriculture. Then we have initiated through- 

 out the country — and I speak of this because sometimes I have 

 been accused of wanting to plough up the whole of the shires 

 and reduce Leicestershire to one brown arable area — we are 

 devoting especial pains to the campaign for the improvement of 

 oTass lands, and it has caught on already in a most remarkable 

 way. We have shown, and proved to the satisfa-ction of farmers 

 in different parts of the country, that, by following proper 

 methods of manuring, the productive capacity of their gr-ass 

 land may be trebled and even quadrupled. Then we have 

 devoted time and thought to the development of agTicultural 

 machinery, and in that connection I have no intention of 

 apologising for the work which the Food Production Depart- 

 ment did during the War in importing and trying, and exposing 

 where they were worthless, tractors of every sort and kind from 

 every manufacturing country in the world. Although we have 

 been accused of having spent a great deal of money, or lost it, 

 in this matter, I venture to say we saved the farmers of this 

 -country at least twenty millions of money, and ten years of 

 time, instead of letting them find out for themselves, at the 

 expense of their own pockets, which machinery was reliable and 

 which was not. Then we are conducting a great series of 

 experiments in arable dairy farming to show what gTeat 

 economies may be effected with regard to feeding stuffs, which 

 are such a serious expense at the present time, and how the 

 production of milk may be made cheaper. 



Milk Recording Scheme. — Then there is the Ministry's 

 scheme of milk recording. < I do not know whether farmers 



c 



