AN IMAGINARY GRIEVANCE 83 



sive railway rate " theory falls, therefore, entirely 

 to the ground, and the real reason why French 

 blackberries are put on the London market in- 

 stead of English is, evidently, that our neigh- 

 bours will take the trouble to pick them, and 

 make the very simple arrangement necessary for 

 sending them in, while English people fail to 

 show the same amount of energy and enterprise, 

 and content themselves, rather, with cherishing 

 an imaginary grievance against the railway com- 

 panies. 



Gooseberries are collected in the villages 

 around St. Malo in a somewhat similar fashion, 

 the peasants who have a few bushes in their 

 gardens disposing of the fruit to a local trades- 

 man, who, when he has gathered in a good 

 supply, will dispose of it to the wholesale dealer, 

 getting Fr. 1 50 c. per cwt. on delivery, which is 

 at his own expense. 



Then the growing of early potatoes in France 

 has assumed such a magnitude that the trade 

 therein done through the port of St. Malo alone 

 represented in 1002 a total of over .£200,000. It 

 is no wonder that a year or two ago a St. Malo 

 merchant, in addressing a meeting of agricul- 

 turists at Dol, advised them to cultivate potatoes 

 on every available acre. The export from St. 

 Malo to Southampton amounts, in the height of 



