wherever land is properly under control, as rightly managed forest land must be, it is a protection against the vermin and weeds which, form one of the curses of waste land or even of land which is only available for rough grazing. We, therefore, do not consider that the question can be solely measured by the amount of employment which is afforded in forest operations. Nor should the value of a local timber supply in relation to small subsidiary rural industries be overlooked, and the economies which, with the development of cheap power, can be secured by handiness in repairs and in making the various requisites of a wellequipped farm Forestry, even from this limited point of view with which we are here concerned, is thus an integral part of a national rural conservation policy.

G.-Administrative Organisation.

230. The problem of administrative organisation is recognised everywhere as much more important to agriculture to-day than was the case a few years ago. Each country must develop its own forms of organisation, and the important matter is to recognise what is particularly suited to each community. It is within the period of our Reference, that in most countries, special departments of the State have been established to deal with agriculture, but this country was one of the last to establish such an administrative department.

231. In the United States of America there has been in existence for over 70 years, a Federal Department of Agriculture, as well as Departments in individual States of the Union. So also in Continental countries, steps were taken at an earlier date than in this country to establish special administrative Departments dealing with agriculture.

232. In this country it was not until 1889 that the miscellaneous services under the Privy Council, the Board of Trade, and other bodies, in relation to agriculture, were brought together in one department. The establishment of the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction in Ireland in 1900, and of the Board o Agriculture for Scotland in 1912, mark the recognition of the value of special Departments to watch over the requirements of the different parts of Great Britain. Although therefore, progress has been made in Britain, it is, on the whole, less than that which has been made abroad, especially in the United States and in the British Dominions, and we would draw attention to the large appropriations given in these countries to their Agricultural departments. Close attention should be paid to the development and organisation of the U.S. Federal Department of Agriculture, which has not only secured a great influence in its own country, but is being watched with interest by other countries as a Department which has pioneered in many respects modern community organisation in the interests of agriculture.

233. Not less necessary is the development of local machinery. We have already in the First Interim Report referred to the need

for a restoration of the County Agricultural Committees in Scotland. We wish to emphasize the importance of the development of these County Agricultural Committees and their subcommittees throughout Great Britain and the valuable part they can play in organising the agricultural interest within. each county area. In Ireland there has been a power of rating on the part of the county committees of agriculture, not simply for the purpose of agricultural education, but for administrative crop and livestock schemes; and we consider that in England, Scotland and Wales powers should be conferred on the County Councils to strike a rate for agricultural purposes generally, and not only for agricultural education. In Ireland, the grants from the Central Government have, in many respects, been made in relation to the rates levied for the assistance of agriculture by the county authorities, and a similar policy of grants in relation to the support forthcoming from the County Councils might be followed in Great Britain. There is need, in many counties of England, of a much more complete local county agricultural service, with a more adequate staff than exists at the present time, and with better provision for county demonstrations and services. Each county authority should be a centre of full and up-to-date information as to the position of agriculture within the county. County authorities should be in touch, through their officers, with the collection of the annual statistics with regard to number and size of holdings, harvests, stock and labour; and there should thus be available, at the Headquarters of each county, the fullest information as to the economic position of agriculture within the county. This information should be of great service to the development of county schemes.

234. It has already been indicated that we consider that the action which the State may take in regard to agricultural credit and the insurance of livestock should be associated with the county administration. Similarly, schemes for drainage, subsoiling and liming of land and assistance to rural industries serve to indicate the wide field which is open to the local agricultural community as organised in and acting through public administrative machinery,

235. But side by side with the statutory county administration, and serving a distinct purpose, must be the voluntary organisation of the industry. This country has various voluntary associations which have, in their own way, served the agricultural community. Such are the Royal Agricultural Society of England, the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, the Central Chambers and County Chambers of Agriculture, the Agricultural Organisation Society and other bodies. But within recent years by far the most notable development has been the growth of the National Farmers' Union, which represents a very important step in the voluntary organisation of agriculture in this country. There is much work which can be better discharged by such a voluntary body than by the State Department or the County Committees.

The State and voluntary organisations are complementary; there is ample room for each of them, and many leading representatives of the farmers and of their voluntary associations are also prominent in the work of the county authority.

236. But no single body which represents primarily one interest in rural life, whether farmers, or labourers, or landlords, or co-operators, or any other particular group, can take the place of the statutory county organisation which represents the whole community. In England the Council of Agriculture for England, in Wales the Welsh Council of Agriculture, and in Scotland the Scottish Central Council, are all of them institutions which can be made of great service to the community. We would, however, direct attention to the fact that none of these National Councils has been so successful in its work as the Council of Agriculture in Ireland. That Council has been more strictly and completely the representative of the County Committees of Agriculture throughout Ireland and we consider it is desirable in the interests alike of the reputation and effectiveness of the County Committees and of the practical usefulness of the Council itself, that this body in England, Wales and Scotland should be primarily, if not entirely, the council of the County Committees. The Council of Agriculture in Ireland has remained predominantly a national council of the County Committees, and this representative character gives strength to both. To the Irish Department of Agriculture is attached a body called the Board of Agriculture, two-thirds of whose members are elected by the Council of Agriculture, the remaining third being nominated. The Board is directly associated with the Department in the framing of its policy and the control of its expenditure, at least as far as the Development Fund is concerned. This arrangement has shown itself compatible with the Parliamentary responsibility of the Minister concerned, while it has given a reality and influence to the proceedings of the Board and of the National Council which elects it, such as otherwise cannot be secured. In England the equivalent of the Board is, to a considerable extent, the Agricultural Advisory Committee, and we think it worthy of consideration whether this body could not be brought into closer touch with the Ministry of Agriculture, and at the same time made more representative of the County Agricultural Committee element of the Council of Agriculture. The representation both on the Council and the Advisory Committee of sectional interest should, in our opinion, be very limited.

237. Each country has developed and is developing its own forms of organisation, and while it is useful to observe the institutions of France, Germany, Denmark, and the United States, we consider that the particular lines of development in our own country should continue to be based on the statutory representative system of local government which has been evolved as part of our constitution of self-government and which is one of the most democratic and successful forms of local government in any

country. Agriculture has to hitch itself to this scheme if it is to secure its full power of drawing public sympathy and support along with it.

PART IV.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS.

238. From the review of agriculture both at home and abroad since 1870, it is apparent that there have been changes of great magnitude. The period may indeed be called the period of the agricultural revolution. It is during this period that the competition of the new lands has made itself increasingly felt, with farreaching effects on supplies and prices; that in consequence, most of the agricultural countries of Western Europe have resorted to a system of agricultural protection; that the State has actively interested itself in agricultural research and education; that in most countries the industry has been re-organised and given a new solidarity and strength through co-operation. Among other developments have been the application of power and mechanical labour-saving devices; the use of chemical fertilisers, which has become increasingly widespread and has provided an invaluable supplement towards maintaining the fertility of the land; and the more scientific selection of strains of crops and stock, while there has been a growing recognition of the fact that the provision of better housing, better education and a more complete standard of life for those employed on the land is essential to the stability and efficiency of the agricultural industry itself. The period is therefore one of vast change.

239. Changes in Area and Output.-In examining the agriculture of Great Britain and of Continental countries during the last fifty years, the main fact which stands out clearly is the maintenance of the arable area abroad and its decline at home. In 1870 British agriculture stood in the forefront as the most efficient and productive system of agriculture in any country. In methods of farming, in yields of crops, in quality of stock, in traditions of good husbandry and in the interest which the agricultural societies had created in the industry, Great Britain held the foremost place. It was to Great Britain that the Continental countries looked for their lessons in improvement of methods of cultivation and in the breeding and rearing of livestock. There was thus a wider margin for progress in foreign countries than in Great Britain.

240. The study which has been given of the changes of stock and crops has brought out the fact that since 1870 the productivity of English agriculture has not advanced, but has declined. There has been on the whole a steady decline in the number of persons employed and in the extent of the arable area, an increasing dependence of the nation on imported food and of the agricultural industry itself on imported feeding stuffs; while British agriculture is to-day in an unorganised condition as compared with that of

the more progressive States of Europe and the New World. Nevertheless, the country still presents some of the best farming in the world and is unsurpassed as a source of breeding stock.

241. The changes in production in Great Britain present important contrasts to the European countries with which comparison is most relevant. We have seen that not only has the area of corn crops declined but that the fall in the area of root crops has been proportionately great, and, from the standpoint of intensive production, much more serious. At the same time the carrying capacity of the country in livestock while it has remained stationary, has only been maintained by increasing imports of feeding stuffs. On the other hand, in France, Germany, Belgium, and Denmark the arable area in 1870 was proportionately much larger than in this country. This larger area has, for the most part, been well maintained, and production upon it has been intensified chiefly through the extension of root and green crops, and in some cases a great increase in livestock.

242. The Family Farm.-Another striking feature in any comparison between agriculture in Great Britain and abroad is the place and influence of the family farm in the agriculture of Continental Europe and of the New World. Compared with Continental countries, Great Britain is mainly a country of medium and large farms. British agriculture stands in contrast both to Continental systems and to the systems in America and in the British Dominions by the use of a large amount of hired labour. We believe that the productivity of European agriculture, particularly of that of Denmark, Germany and Belgium, where the output has been greatest, has been largely due to the attention given to the organisation of the family farming system; and in Denmark, which still offers the most instructive field for comparison, the maintenance and extension of the system have been regarded as the most secure foundation for obtaining the maximum out of the land, while, at the same time, developing a democratic and rural social community.

243. It is a striking fact that the countries which have had most experience of the small family farm system, so far from receding from the system, have been, even before the war, and still more markedly since, engaged in a policy of increasing the number of these holdings and improving the general system of community organisation in their support. It is a very difficult matter as yet, on the basis of existing evidence, to discover whether the increased productivity of European agriculture within the last fifty years has been due to the multiplication of small holdings, but the increased production which has followed from the breaking up of estates in Denmark and in other Western countries goes to support this view. Nevertheless, it is true that, especially in the Eastern European countries, the breaking up of many of the large estate farms into small holdings since 1918 has led for the time to a diminished output, but the circumstances have been exceptional and there has been a lack of co-ordinated effort and equipment.