212 SELF-HELP NOT PKOTECTION 



including Indian corn (35 millions), or of articles which 

 either cannot be produced at all or cannot be grown 

 advantageously in this country (27^ millions). The re- 

 maining 50^ millions consists, for the most part, of pro- 

 duce which not only might be produced in this country, 

 but, if railway rates were readjusted, could be produced 

 with equal advantage nowhere else. Excluding salt and 

 preserved meat, cheese, margarine, and lard, which are 

 not perishable, and therefore could be conveyed here by 

 sea, we annually import from abroad perishable produce, 

 such as livestock, fresh meat, butter, eggs, fruit, and 

 vegetables, of the enormous value of 30,600,000/. This 

 sum, which exceeds the total value of the imported wheat 

 by 4^ millions, can be produced at home under superior 

 advantages of proximity. 



Our foreign meat supply arrives alive or dead. In the 

 first case, English farmers suffer constant risk from im- 

 ported contagious disease. Against this influx of living 

 beef and mutton, if not unduly favoured by railway rates, 

 English farmers can and must contend. But imported 

 livestock should not be suffered to spread infection among 

 the flocks and herds of this country. In France veterinary 

 officers belonging to the Agricultural Department are 

 stationed at all the ports of entry, armed with full powers 

 to exclude or slaughter foreign livestock. In the Nether- 

 lands the vigorous action of the Ministry of Agriculture has 

 stamped out pleuro-pneumonia. Why should not a similar 

 practice prevail in England? So long as contagious 

 diseases are not shut out, British farmers fight foreign 

 meat-producers with one hand tied behind their backs. 

 Railway rates tie up the other. Under no natural system 

 of competition could 30 million pounds' worth of perishable 

 produce be thrown upon the London markets in equal 



