Mr. 1'. D. Acland, Member for North Devon, made on
Tuesday a most able and painstaking speech, ou a novel but most import- ant subject, the absence of any regular Department of Agricul- ture. The aid of the Executive is required on fifty county ques- tions, such as the introduction of tramways, the construction of roads, the extension of drainage, the regulation of enclosures, the improvement of veterinary education, the commencement of tech- nical instruction in agriculture, the certificating of sound stallions, the cleansing of rivers, and above all the incidence of local taxa- tion; but the unlucky farmers never know or can know to what official to refer. Power is distributed among a dozen Departments —the Home Office, the Privy Council, the Statistical Office, and half-a-dozen commissions, till applicants are bewildered, and sometimes, as in the Cattle Plague affair, seriously damaged. He moved for a Committee, but he really wanted a Minister of Agri- culture. Mr. Read supported him, and Mr. Hardy was not entirely opposed, but said the request must come from the county constituencies before it could be granted. We venture to predict we shall hear more of a reform indefinitely more practical and valu- able than half the suggestions offered to the House. It is impossible to exaggerate the loss the counties sustain from the indifference of the Executive Government to the promotion of agriculture.
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