324 GERMAN VIEW OF ENGLISH AGRICULTURE 



in foreign countries, where the families may have 

 known one another for generations. Even with 

 these drawbacks, however, Dr. Levy finds in 

 present conditions in England a distinct advance 

 in the development of combination — " an 

 advance," he declares, "which has certainly 

 contributed to the fact that English agriculture 

 is in a better condition to-day than it was in the 

 middle of the nineties." 



The second of Dr. Levy's reasons why the 

 British cultivator has not been able to fully meet 

 foreign competition in market-garden and other 

 produce is defined by him as a non-agricultural 

 one. " In England," he writes on this point, 

 " the possession of landed property offers to the 

 wealthy great social and political advantages. 

 The political influence of the landowner, and 

 the attractions and advantages of a country- 

 seat, alike as a summer residence and as a centre 

 for sport and society, awaken in almost every 

 well-to-do Englishman the desire to own an 

 estate." For these reasons, Dr. Levy argues, 

 a great amount of land has been taken up in 

 England for non-agricultural purposes, and is 

 kept unproductive, not because tenants could 

 not be found, and not because of any unsuit- 

 ability of the soil, but either in the interests of 

 sport, or because the conversion of the land into 



