CONTROLS AND THE FARMER By H. D. WALSTON F ARMERS, like
most other people in this country, are becoming increasingly restive concerning the controls to which they have submitted during the past five years. They are naturally anxious to regain as much of their old freedom as possible as soon as the war is over, but you cannot discuss how many of the war-time controls should be thrown overboard without knowing how little freedom the farmer has today. Since only very few people outside of the industry realise the extent of the restrictions imposed on the farmer, it is worth while outlining briefly some of the more important.
In each county the Minister of Agriculture is represented by a War Agricultural Executive Committee, which is made up of lead- ing representatives of the industry. These committees, working through their various sub-committees, are-entrusted with the super- vision of all farming activities in their county. Not only do they control cropping, labour, machinery, fertilisers and new buildings ; they can even, with the consent of the Minister, terminate the tenancy of a tenant farmer and take possession of any land that they consider is being unsatisfactorily farmed. But more important than any of these activities is the work of their Technical Development Sub-Committees, whose duty it is to see that the latest discoveries of science are fully used by the farmers in the county. Before all war-time controls are ruthlessly thrown aside, we must be quite sure that even peace-time agriculture cannot obtain some benefit from measures introduced during the war.
One of the greatest needs of agriculture in the past has been for some means of ensuring the wide and speedy dissemination of the results of research. This can readily be appreciated when one looks at the difference between average and maximum yields, whether of milk or corn-5oo gallons annually compared with ',5o° gallons of milk ; z6.it cwt. per acre compared with 35 cwt. of corn. It is true that some of this enormous difference is accounted for by the innate ability of the man in charge of the cows, or by the innate fertility of the soil, but a large part of it is brought about by the proper application of scientific methods. These methods are available to all, but they are made use of by very few. It will be seen, therefore, what enormous possibilities there are of increasing the productivity of the country simply by raising the standard of the average nearer to that of the best. Attempts were made in the past to raise the standard, and in certain localities they have met with partial success, but for every farmer who listened to the adviee of his County Advisory Officer, there were ninety-nine who ignored it.
It is to those ninety-nine that we must pay special attention after the war. We must no longer be content to give farmers the chance of obtaining gratuitous advice if they want it ; we must seek out those who need it and make sure that they realise how much they will benefit by making use of it.
This will be the great function that War Agricultural Executive Committees can fulfil when the war is over and when the time is past for the exercise of many of the autocratic powers that they now possess. They should no longer be considered the local dicta- tors of agricultural policy. They should -be looked upon, instead, as the Board of Governors of the local Advisory Centre or Farm Insti- tute. This Institute should act as the centre of agricultural education for the county. Here farmers should he able to meet together and see working those innovations and new practices about which they will already have heard from the advisory staff of the Institute as they travel around the countryside ; here will be run evening classes and longer courses for young farmers and farm workers. These Farm Institutes must be kept distinct from Research Stations, but they must always be in close touch with the Research Station, just as the Research Station must be in touch with a parent University. Close contact must be kept between the three bodies ; they will all be essen- tial links in the chain joining Science with Practice. By this means,. the problems of farmers would quickly be referred to the scientists most capable of solving them, while the results of scientific research would be equally quickly spread among the farmers likely to benefit from them.
Such a scheme would entail close co-operation between the Ministeries of Agriculture and Education, and the Local Authorities.
The present constitution of the War Agricultural Committees would have to be enlarged to enable these bodies to be represented. While the main duties of the new body would be the general super- vision of agricultural education, it would also be responsible for ensuring that a reasonably high standard of cultivation is maintained in its area. It should be possible, when the urgency of war is over, to ensure, by a combination of price adjustment and education, with a minimum of direction from the Government, that the country gets the food that it requires, and that the land is not damaged by neglect on the part of the farmer or landowner. Price adjust- ment alone will never be sufficient, because the inefficient farmer is always able to stay in business longer than he should, by neglect- ing the capital equipment of his farm. If, for instance, he is un- able to produce wheat at a sufficiently low cost to show a profit, and at the same time farm his land in a husbandlike manner, he will not give up producing wheat. He will start to neglect his hedges and ditches, and will economise on fertilisers or dung, with the result that he will continue to show a trading profit for many years at the expense of his capital assets. When he eventually stops farming, the productivity of his land will have been greatly reduced. It will therefore always be necessary in the national interest to retain some form of supervision of agriculture. The best man to exercise this supervision will be the Field Advisory Officer, whose job, we have already seen, will be to educate and advise farmers in his district. It should, however, be emphasised that such a man must always be considered as the friend and helper of farmers, and not as the interfering Government Official who comes to a farm only with the idea of seeing what faults he can find. It is only when he fails that the County Committee should be called in. In such extreme cases they would have the power, as at present, to order the farmer in question to farm his land according to the direc- tions of the Advisory Officer, and if all else failed they could dis- possess the farmer. There must, however, be the right of appeal to a Court of Law.. The Committee would have similar powers and responsibilities towards the owner of the land as well as towards the occupier of it. In other words, it would be their duty to see that the agriculture of their county was kept at a high standard of efficiency.
In this way it will be possible to bring the advantages of science to every farm in the country, to maintain the industry at a high level of efficiency, and at the same time to allow it a very large degree of independence and self-government.
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