14 Land & Water June 27, 1918 
A Charter for Agriculture: By Sir H. Matthews 
A NUMBER of documents have, during the past 
ten years or so, been accorded the title of 
"charter"; among others, the Small Holdings 
Act was so acclaimed by an enthusiastic section 
of the political Press ; so was that quaint pro- 
duction, The Report of the Land Inquiry Committee, issued 
in 1913. The reports of several official committees have 
been welcomed with pa-ans of praise, by one part\- or another, 
according to the measure of support they gave to their respec- 
tive nostrums for solving agrarian questions. At last we 
have something which embodies the essence of most of these 
earlier documents, presented by a body of really first-class 
agriculturists, who have taken a broad and statesmanlike 
view of all the more important problems that have cumula- 
tively rendered the industry so difficult and unprofitable. 
This is a report presented by a sub-committee of the 
Reconstruction Committee, appointed by Mr. Asquith in 
August, 1916, to consider and report upon the best methods of 
increasing home-grown food supi)lies in the interest of national 
security. The Committee was originally composed as 
follows : Lord Selborne (chairman). Sir Charles Bathurst, 
M.P., Mr. C. M. Douglas (Scotland)', Sir Ailwvn Fellowes, 
Mr. W. l'"itzherbert-Brockholes, Sir Daniel Hall, Mr. W. A. 
Haviland, Mr. C. Bryner Jones (Wales), Mr. R. E. Prothero, 
M.P., Mr. G. G. Rea, Mr. G. H. Roberts, M.P., Hon. E. G. 
Strutt, and Sir Matthew Wallace (Scotland), with Mr. H. J,. 
French, of the Board of Agriculture, and Mr. A. Goddard 
(Secretary of the Surveyors' Institution) as joint secretaries. 
In November, 1916, Mr. Asquith added Sir Horace Plunkett 
and the Bishop of Ross to represent Ireland, while Sir Charles 
Bathurst, Mr. Prothero, and Mr. Roberts, M.P., resigned in 
hebruary, 1917, on taking ministerial office. These three 
members all signed the Interim Report, presented in February, 
1917, which confined its recommendations to the questions 
of a minimum wage for farm labourers, the guarantee of 
minimum prices for wheat and oats, the conferring of powers 
on the Board of Agriculture to enforce the proper cultivation 
of land, and the encouragement of the production of beet 
sugar in the United Kingdom. The first three were embodied 
in the Corn Production Act of 1917, while the production of 
sugar beet has been taken up departmentally. 
There is one outstanding feature in the composition of this 
Committee which distinguishes it from almost ever\' other 
official inquiry ; that is, the entire absence of the politician 
and the almost complete absence of political inflection. The 
natural result is that we find a series of recommendations, 
some of which rut right across the lines hitherto marked out 
by the party wire-pullers, but all part of a comprehensive 
poHcy, each factor having been considered on its merits, and 
nothing advocated of a chimerical nature or outside practical 
politics. Moreover, as a general rule when a recommendation 
is made, it is emphatic : there is little of that hesitating, 
qualified, and fearsome putting forward of a suggestion, and 
then whittling it away by modifications inserted with a view 
to bringing into line recalcitrant members of the committee. 
That is the advantage of having a body of men who know 
their subject, and who can differentiate between theoretical 
and practical. The fact that there were three Members of 
the House of Commons in the original Committee docs not 
in the least conflict with the foregoing view, for both Mr. 
Prothero and Mr. Roberts have frequently risen above the 
trammels of party, while Sir Charies Bathurst occupies his 
scat with a definite understanding that he has a perfectly 
free hand in all agricultural questions. 
Both the Interim and Final Reports are signed by all the 
members except by Sir Matthew Wallace, who presents a 
minority report to each of them, and the burden of whose 
song is always the need of "security of tenure," This subject 
will be dealt with at a later stage. 
The volume opens with an all too brief historical preface 
by Mr. Goddard, which forms an excellent introduction to 
the report that follows. -The Committee emphasise the fact 
that, in accordance with their terms of reference, they 
approached their work "exclusively in the national interest," 
and not from the standpoint of the landowner or the tenant. 
"It cannot be too often reaffirmed," say the Committee in 
their conclusions, " that the recommendations we have made 
have never been asked for by landowners or farmers, and that 
they have been made exclusively in the national interest, and 
not in that of any individuals or class of individuals. We 
have believed that elementary considerations of national 
insurance demand that this country should become self- 
supporting in the matter of food-stuffs in the event of anv 
future emergency, and we have shown how this can be d(.ne." 
Another paragraph says : 
Since Part I. of our Report was sent in, Parhament has 
passed the Com Production .Act . . . But that Act has been 
passed as a war measure, and is, therefore, a temporary 
Act. We must renew our assurance with all the earnestness at 
our command that, unless after the war the principles of 
tliat Act are (with the necessary adjustment of details to- 
the values and conditions of the time) embodied in a per- 
manent statute, there can be no hope of the people of the 
United Kingdom becoming emancipated from dependence 
on supplies of foodstuffs brought from overseas, or of the 
increase of our rural population. .And, again, we must 
cmpliasise the fact that Parts I. and II. of our Report are 
not separate policies. They are strictly interdependent 
and mutually essential parts of one poUcy . . . Without 
the armour provided by Part I., the measures of reconstruc- 
tion recommended in Part II., are foredoomed to impotence. 
These are pregnant words, and must be borne in mind in 
dealing with any and every portion of the report. They are 
a waiTiing to those who take short or narrow views, and they 
are altogether too much for the mere politician, who looks at 
every question through glasses tinted with bis party colours, 
and negatives all these that do not fall in with his precon- 
ceived opinions. 
The summary of recommendations fill four pages of the 
blue-book, onfe page dealing with Part I., which materialised 
in the Corn Production Act. Turning to those in Part II., the 
first proposal is for a reorganisation of the Boards of Agricul- 
ture for England and Scotland, and the setting up of Advisory 
Committees to each Department on the lines of the Board in 
Ireland. The next is that National Agricultural Councils for 
England and Scotland should be set up, while the existing 
Council for ' Wales should be made statutory ; and that 
delegates from the four Councils (Ireland already has one) 
should meet annually. The appointment of a special Minister 
for Scotland, directly responsible to Parliament is recom- 
mended. Other proposals are : 
Instruction and Research. — Responsibihty for agri- 
cultural education should be removed from tlie Countj- 
Councils and centrali.sed in the Board of Agricultur-? the cost 
being l)orne by public funds. For England and Wales and 
Scotland improved ruralized curriculum for elementary and 
secondarv' schools should be laid down, and better prospects 
provided for teachers in rural districts. Demonstration and 
illustration farms should be estabhshed, a limited number of 
large demonstration fanns being run on business lines. 
•Research work should be developed. Livestock " schemes 
should be extended, and livestock officers' become the ser- 
vants of the Board of Agriculture. The expenditure on 
agricultural education should be largely increased. Better 
> opportunities for the agricultural education of women 
should be given. Students likely to become landowners or 
land agents should be given greater opportunity of studying 
rural economy at public schools and universities. 
.Agricultural Credit. — The procedure in respect of 
loans should be cheapened and simplified. Short term credit 
through co-operative trading societies and farmers' central 
trading boards should be provided. Deposits in the Post 
Office Savings Bank should be made available for use by 
central trading boards. 
S.MALL Holdings : Ownership and Tenancy. — Greater 
facilities .for purchase should be given to small-holders 
desirous of uwning their land ; County Councils should be 
urged to prepare schemes at once lor the provision of small- 
holdings for ex-sailors and soldiers, both as tenants and 
owners ; and the Treasury should remove the financial 
•restrictions at present placed upon thim. The principle 
of purchase contained in Mr. Jesse Collings's Purchase 
of Land Bill should be adopted. 
Tithe Redemption. — Legislation should be passed to 
stimulate tithe redemption, particularly with a view to 
making land available for small-holdings or for village re- 
construction without payment of cash. 
Agricultural Holdings .Acts.— High farming, beyond 
the recognised requirements of good farming, should, sub- 
ject to proper safeguards, be recognised as a subject for 
compensation. That the principle of the Evesham custom 
shoulK be adopted. 
RjiCLAMATiON AND DRAINAGE.— Special authorities to 
be set up in each of the three Kingdoms. 
Deer Forests.— Land suitable for agriculture ind 
forestry should b^ so utilised, and a special survey should 
be marie. A national ixilicy of afforestation and interniinghng 
jilantations and small holdings should be adopted. 
Weights and Measures.— A special sub-committee of 
the Reconstruction Committee should be set up to inquire 
into tl- " h^.u. question of imperial weights and measures. 
