WHY NOT CORNWALL? 81 



by the ton for consignment to the English 

 market. As for the peasantry, their receipt of 

 eight centimes per pound for picking 773 tons of 

 blackberries during the season means that the 

 business put into their pockets no less a sum 

 than £5,541. The average price at which the 

 St. Malo exporter sold to the English merchant 

 ranged from £10 to £12 per ton, though some 

 of the consignments realized as much as £14 per 

 ton. Even taking the lowest of these figures, 

 one finds that during the autumn of 1903 a sum 

 of £7,730 was paid for blackberries brought to 

 England from a single French port. 



The question may well be asked why this 

 money should have gone to France when in 

 Cornwall and other parts of our own country 

 there were blackberries equally fine that were 

 left to rot on the bushes, either because people 

 would not go to the trouble of picking them, or 

 because there was no one enterprising enough 

 to carry out there the method of collection that 

 answers so well in France. 



The answer that " distressed agriculture " 

 would probably make is, " Oh, the railway 

 rates in England are so high that the business 

 could never be made to pay." In anticipation 

 of such a reply I have asked the General 

 Manager of the London and South AVestern 



G 



