1920] Speech by Minister of Agriculture. 



325 



labourers' wages. The higher wage has come to stay, and the 

 way in which it can be paid and can be justified in an economic 

 sense will be by an increased yield which may mean a little 

 more labour but far greater profits. With regard to this, 

 I think it is impossible to exaggerate the debt that the farmers 

 of this country owe to the work which is being done here at 

 Rothamsted and by Professor Biffen at Cambridge. I should 

 like to say a special word about Professor Biffen because 

 he is one of those extraordinarily modest people who can never 

 be found except in their laboratory but who are really great 

 benefactors of their country. He is not a mere scientist 

 who deals with experiments in a test tube ; he recognises 

 that wheat growing has got to be made worth while if it is 

 going to be pursued in this country, and he is devoting his 

 great abilities to finding out how you can increase yields, 

 particularly on the poorer lands. The services which he and 

 his fellow-workers have rendered in this respect are amongst 

 the most remarkable that have been given to the nation for 

 many years past. He has produced for you rust-proof wheat 

 which means a saving in many cases of from four to five bushels 

 to the acre. He has now produced for you practical varieties 

 of " strong " milling wheats which will compare with the 

 best milling wheats from North America and which will, if 

 grown, bring you an additional 3s. or 4s. a quarter. As a 

 result of this work, of which you see little but which must 

 mean much to you when you adopt these discoveries in 3^our 

 practical work, he is persuaded, and it has got to be proved 

 that he is wrong, that it is by no means impossible that the 

 average yield of wheat in this country can be brought up 

 from four to five quarters per acre. If that is done you have 

 practically solved the economic problem at once, and a good 

 many of these difficulties about wages and other costs of 

 production will disappear. Make no mistake about this : 

 England, whether with regard to its soil, or its climate, or 

 anything else, is probably the finest wheat-growing country 

 in the world. We grumble at our weather ; we grumble 

 at our many difficulties, but they are nothing to what growers 

 have to compete with in other countries. We do not make 

 half enough use of our soil, and the present area under wheat 

 must be increased in the national interest. 



Control of Cultivation. — That brings me to another point with 

 regard to which the critics are very severe. They object 

 to that part of the Bill which deals with control of cultivation 

 by the County Agricultural Committees. I sympathise with 



