In the House of Lords on Wednesday the Agriculture Bill
was debated, and the Lords rejected the clause which gives Ministers power to enforce certain methods of cultivation. In vain Lord Lee argued that there was too much bad farming in the country, and that a hold over bad farmers was essential if the guaranteed prices of corn were to be paid ; 140 voted fot Lord Parmoor's amendment rejecting the clause, and only 34 supported the Government. We know how intensely all farmers hate every sort of Government intervention, but we are bound to remark that the very fact that the Government have addressed themselves to the highly desirable end of making the land produce more does connote some measure of control. When Canada was owned by France farmers used to be put in prison for not cutting their thistles. We do not want to see British farmers in prison, but the whole principle under which the Government concern themselves with the largest of all British industries—an industry essential to the life and safety of the nation—involves a certain number of constraints in return for the personal security of the farmer.
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