§ LORD BLEDISLOE had given Notice to ask His Majesty's Government on what terms and for what exact purposes Lord Lee of Fareham, late Minister of Agriculture, has generously made over to the nation 700 acres of land belonging to the Chequers estate, and how it is proposed to utilise this area under the existing scheme of agricultural experiment and research as conducted at Rothamsted, Cambridge, Woburn, and Long Ashton near Bristol.
§ The noble Lord said: My Lords, your Lordships will have seen with pleasure, and from the national standpoint with gratitude, the Press announcement of a fortnight ago, as to the truly magnificent 574 gift to the nation by the present First Lord of the Admiralty, who, up to recently, was Minister of Agriculture —a gift which, if the newspaper descriptions are correct, will rank with similar munificence on the part, let me say, in the past, of Francis, Duke of Bedford, or Sir John Bennet Lawes of Rothamsted. I ask this question with reference to this gift because it is not apparent from the announcement made in the Press as to how it will fit in with the general scheme of agricultural research which was put forward about two years ago, and for which a definite sum of public money was car-marked, and which cannot, as I understand, be increased.
§ The gift of Chequers, one of the most beautiful country houses in the United Kingdom, was indeed as a country residence for present and future Prime Ministers, a magnificent gift. I venture to suggest that the gift of something like 1,300 acres of land adjacent is no less magnificent, and may prove to be of great economic advantage to agriculture, if it is utilised for the purposes which Lord Lee adumbrates in his letter to the present Minister of Agriculture, which was published in the Press a fortnight ago. I should say, perhaps, that this Press announcement simply reported the contents of two letters, one of May 9 and the other of May 12, being the offer by Lord Lee to the present Minister of Agriculture, and the latter's reply.
§ Lord Lee, in his letter, speaks of surrendering his interests in the farms and woodlands forming the Chequers estate, in order to give the Ministry of Agriculture an opportunity of occupying and carrying them on as "an experimental and instructional centre." I do not quite know what that last expression means, although we all understand what "experimental" means. Lord Lee goes on to say that the area of the farms is about 700 acres, together with farm buildings, seven cottages, farm machinery and sufficient live stock to make it a going concern. It looks as if he intended that it should be carried on as a farm. He mentions, incidentally, that the area of the woodlands is 600 acres, and that they contain a new steam saw mill, which I should think is no small part of the commercial value of that part of the gift.
§
In the reply which Sir Arthur Griffith-Boscawen sent to Lord Lee, he says this —
It is proposed that the main farm —
575
he does not say how many acres —
be conducted as an example of a stock-raising farm, showing how land of that character could be improved so as to produce the maximum output of live-stock consistent with sound commercial agriculture.
I do not quite know the character of this land, but I should imagine that a good deal of it is typical of the Chiltern hills, with a chalk subsoil and no great depth of surface soil. The letter goes on to say —
It should be made a valuable demonstration of the growth of improved varieties of cereals and fodder crops, and of the amelioration of grassland to be utilised for the intensive breeding and rearing of live stock, without departing from the prime economic purpose of any farm which is intended to guide the practice of the working farmer. At the same time, it is hoped to come to an arrangement with the Bucks County Council re Dropshort Farm in connection with a farm institute. Prime Ministers for all time will have at their doors an example of the agricultural education in being.
He ends by saying —
I hope to provide you very shortly with a more elaborate plan for the management of these farms.
The Minister's reply seems to cover the whole field of agriculture in all its departments, and if that is so it will be rather hard, I venture to suggest, to incorporate it as part of the Government scheme of agricultural research as carried on at centres in various parts of this country.
§ Your Lordships will probably not be aware, and perhaps will allow me to mention, that there are, at present, no fewer than eight centres of agricultural research in this country. The first is at Rothamsted (soil and nutrition of plants), the second at Rothamsted (plant pathology or diseases), the third at Cambridge and Aberdeen (animal nutrition), and others at Cambridge and Aberyst-with (plant breeding), Long Ashton, Bristol, and East Mailing, Kent (fruit growing), Reading (dairying), the Imperial College of Science (plant physiology), and Oxford (agricultural economics). For all that work a sum of £ 105,000 is earmarked, and the Treasury, I understand, have told the Minister of Agriculture that the amount cannot in any circumstances be increased. I do not want for a moment to look a gift horse in the mouth —because it is a truly magnificent gift —but I think one is justified in asking how this estate is going to be carried on for the purpose both of research and education without in any way depleting the grants that are made out 576 of this block grant to the various centres of agricultural research to which I have referred. It is noticeable that if this valuable gift is really for animal research, it would, on the face of it, encroach on the work which is now being conducted at Cambridge and Aberdeen in respect of animal nutrition, or at Reading in respect of dairying.
§ THE EARL OF CRAWFORD made a remark which was not heard.
§ LORD BLEDISLOEI did not hear what the noble Earl said. I have no doubt that the noble Earl is more sympathetic than most noble Lords present, because he showed, when he was Minister, a very special interest in the research work which was then being initiated. But as regards the other problems to which Sir Arthur Griffith-Boscawen refers —namely, plant and soil problems —those are already being more than covered in the matter of research at Rothamsted, and to some extent at Cambridge and Aberystwith. There is one department of research which has not yet been dealt with, and for which the chief agricultural adviser of the Ministry has already made an appeal to the public for generous help —I may venture to remind the noble Earl that at the moment I have the honour of being Chairman of two of these research stations, and we are in genuine fear that in the acceptance of this gift by the Ministry we may ourselves suffer in the very important work which we are at present conducting. The department to which I refer is animal disease. Although there is at the moment an important Royal Commission sitting in reference to this question of animal disease, we have not in this country any research institute or centre dealing with research into animal diseases. Nor have we what some other countries have —a research station in connection with comparative pathology, that is to say, the relation that disease in animals bears to disease in man. That covers the whole area of internal parasitical disease, which is common both to our domestic animals and also to mankind.
In putting this Question, I desire to ask if the noble Earl is able to tell me whether the acceptance of this gift will in any way encroach upon the sphere of the other centres of research to which I have referred, or whether it will in any way 577 deplete the grants which they are receiving, or whether any additional funds will be provided by the Treasury to enable this work, whatever it may be, to be carried out with success and in the best interests of the agriculture of this country.
§ THE PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY OF THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FISHERIES (THE EARL OF ANCASTER)My Lords, the noble Lord has already, in putting this Question, referred at some length to the correspondence which passed between Lord. Lee of Fareham and the Minister of Agriculture as regards Lord Lee of Fareham's generous gift, so that I do not think it is necessary for me to refer again to those letters. In reply to his Question, I may say that the exact terms under which the surrender will be effected are under consideration and cannot for the moment be set out, but Lord Lee of Fareham proposes to anticipate the provisions of the trust deed and to hand over forthwith the home farm and the woodlands at Chequers on the same generous terms as he made in the gift of the house and its amenities. The Ministry will be allowed to enter into possession of the farm as a going concern without any payment for tenant right or growing crops. The surrender is to be made in the course of the next few weeks, and I am sure the noble Lord will recognise what a generous provision that is, because the Ministry will have the reaping and selling of all the crops which Lord Lee of Fareham sowed and cultivated. Lord Lee will also leave the implements and equipment of the farm, together with a. good amount of livestock on the farm. I believe he proposes to sell off only some of his pedigree herds.
As regards what is going to be done with the farm, perhaps in the future it may be possible to carry out experimental work on the Chequers farm that may be part of some of the research schemes under the Ministry's care. So far, I have been repeating what the Minister has said, hi the first instance, the Ministry intend to develop the farms for the purpose of demonstrating intensive stock rearing methods, suitable to that class of land and applicable by farmers occupying the wide area that exists of similar land. Other crop demonstrations will be carried out in so far as they do not interfere with the normal course of the farming plan adopted. Except for a small area which it is hoped 578 may be worked in connection with the Farm Institutes scheme it is not considered that the Chequers farms can be developed as purely experimental or research farms.
The whole time was listening to the noble Lord I could not quite gather whether he wished the Ministry of Agriculture to go on the Chequers farms as soon as the transfer is completed, and experiment in a large way in research and education, or whether he did not desire us to do this. In part, of his speech he expressed great fear that some of the other experimental and research stations would suffer if we spent some of the money voted for that purpose on experiment and research at Chequers, and undoubtedly that would be the case, but it is not our intention to take any of the money for that purpose. Our intention is to follow- out exactly what I have stated, and what I think the Minister stated in his letter. If ever a farm ought to be made to pay thus is such a case, seeing that Lord Lee of Fareham is handing it over on these generous terms, and I hope the noble Lord opposite will agree with rue when I say that one of the best experimental and research farms is that one which can illustrate for the benefit of all the country round how to make a farm pay; and that we hope to do at Chequers.