230 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 



STEAM ON COUNTRY ROADS. 



Losses year after year and increasing competition 

 indicate that the crops now grown are not sufficient to 

 support the farmer. When he endeavours, however, to 

 vary his method of culture, and to introduce something 

 new, he is met at the outset by two great difficulties 

 which crush out the possibility of enterprise. The first 

 of these — the extraordinary tithe — has already come 

 into prominent notice ; the second is really even more 

 important — it is the deficiency of transit. An extensive 

 use of steam on common roads appears essential to a 

 revival of agricultural prosperity, because without it it is 

 almost impossible for delicate and perishable produce to 

 be quickly and cheaply brought to market. Railways, 

 indeed, now connect nearly every town of any size what- 

 ever throughout the country with the large cities or 

 London ; but railways are necessarily built as lines of 

 communication between towns, and not in reference to 

 scattered farms. Upon the map the spaces between the 

 various rails do not look very broad, but those white 

 bands when actually examined would be found to be 

 six, eight, ten, or even twenty miles wide. Nor are 

 there stations everywhere, so that a farm which may be 

 only six miles from the metals may be ten from the 

 nearest platform. Goods trains do not, as in the United 

 States, stop to pick up wherever there is material or 

 produce waiting to be loaded ; the produce has to be 



