asked the Secretary of State for Scotland whether, to achieve more economic use of land reclamation and drainage equipment, he will take steps to secure the agreement of landowners for land reclamation schemes by areas.

Where the possibility of carrying out a specific arterial drainage or reclamation scheme depends on securing the agreement of all interested proprietors, my officers do in fact try to promote such agreement. The question of organising a sufficient volume of field or hill drainage work in a particular area to enable a private contractor to operate his machinery economically raises of course quite different issues and I should not feel justified in making the services of my officers available for that purpose.