Welsh Journals

can an agriculturist be found who will disclose to another the exact price at which he has bought or sold. All their relationships are instinct with suspicion, and this is equally manifest in the attitude of large farmers to any attempts at innovations by legislative or other means. It is easy to understand the hostility of the holder of a large tenancy to the Small Holdings Act, for example. It threatens his security of tenure. In Cardiganshire and Flintshire, eleven and fifteen large farms respectively have been subdivided, in Denbighshire seventeen have been similarly treated, while in Pembrokeshire twenty farms have been split up into small holdings. In every county in Wales this policy has been carried out, and, while we are convinced that the interests of the agricultural industry as a whole should be the chief concern, we recognise that many regard the Act of 1908 as a danger to themselves and are, therefore, unfriendly to the extension of the Small Holdings movement. In our opinion, the most regrettable feature of the working of the Small Holdings Act is its inability to attract agricultural labourers. In one county in North Wales, out of ninety-five small holders, only fifteen have been farm labourers, and this county be it remembered is not unique in that respect. The very men who have served an apprenticeship on farms, and are competent to cultivate the land to its highest point of productivity, often drift into the towns to carry hods or cut coal, while the holdings fall into the relatively unskilled hands of a vast assortment of people-from postmen to parsons. Why is it that so few farm hands apply for holdings ? There are many answers, but we are of opinion that some, at least, of the apathy shown by agricultural labourers is due to the discouragement they receive from their employers. Further, if we take agricultural organisation in Wales, it is the experience of those who have sought to stimulate agriculturists to co-operation that the chief source of opposition is the well established large farmer. He has been doing well in the last few years and feels keen resentment if anyone makes bold to suggest to him that he could do still better. So long as he has a margin of profit at all, he will not deign to look at co-operation. True, it was not any exceptional degree of susceptibility to the appeal of the co-operative ideal which made the Danes the pioneers of the movement in Europe, but a blind, instinctive response to impulses born of the political and economic crises through which the country passed in the course of its chequered career. The Irish farmers also had to be plunged into poverty and distress, ere they learned the lesson that the way of their salvation lay in the direction of agricultural co-operation. In Wales the large farmers generally dislike any organisation, the membership of which would necessitate his disclosing a single detail of his business affairs, so that one is sometimes constrained to believe that until lean years come his support of agricultural co-operation will be either half-hearted or nil. In antagonism to the movement, his example is followed by his neighbour who farms perhaps only eighty acres. We are fully alive to the fact that there are many enlightened and progressive members of the class of large farmers, men who are pioneers in many phases of agrarian reform, but we fear they are exceptions. Helping the As we mentioned last month, a Farmer. special grant has been made to the Department of Agriculture of the University College of North Wales, by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, for the appointment of two advisers whose duty is to devote themselves to the investigation of special problems affecting agriculture, and the giving of scientific advice on agricultural matters to farmers in North Wales. Mr. J. Lloyd Williams, D.Sc., formerly Assistant Lecturer in Botany at the College, has been appointed Adviser in Agricultural Botany, and Mr. G. W. Robinson, B.A., formerly of the School of Agriculture, Cambridge, Adviser in Agricultural Chemistry. With the aid of a grant from the Development Fund, well equipped laboratories have recently been completed, and full facilities are now available for the speedy investigation of any problems which may be reported, such as treat- ment of soils and crops causes of infertility and peculiarity in soils suitability of particular soils for special crops identification and treatment of plant diseases eradication of weeds and poisonous plants; testing of Seeds; etc. Recently, also, Mr. R. N. Jones, a practical farmer from Merioneth- shire, has been appointed Live Stock Officer for North Wales in connection with the Board of Agri- culture's scheme for the improvement of live stock. He is attached to the Staff of the College Department and will advise on practical questions relating to live stock, including the selection of animals for breeding purposes. In addition to the special Advisory Staff, the services of the other members of the Department's Staff are