308 THE HUMAN ELEMENT 



achieved in several of these minor industries of late 

 years have been won by enterprising men from the 

 towns who had had little or no previous experience of 

 country life. Given the brains, the will, the energy, 

 and the business aptitude, the necessary degree of 

 technical knowledge has soon been picked up. With 

 the qualifications mentioned, men who started in the 

 first instance without technical knowledge have suc- 

 ceeded where others natives of the soil and possessing 

 technical knowledge only have failed. One of the 

 largest and most successful growers of fruit and vege- 

 tables under glass in this country devoted the earlier 

 years of his life to the law. Another grower (in the 

 same line) I have met was formerly in the tea trade. 



A clerk in the Railway Clearing-house, finding his 

 health affected by the close confinement of office life, 

 went to Lincolnshire, started as a farmer, dealt in 

 corn, cake, and seeds, and then took to bulb-growing, 

 first as a hobby, and then as a serious business. He 

 had had no expert knowledge of bulb production, but 

 he persevered, learned by experience, and worked away 

 until he became one of the principal growers in his 

 district. He now has a farm of 87 acres, of which 

 20 acres are devoted to bulbs. 



A Yorkshire factory operative had devoted his leisure 

 to growing flowers, and he won several prizes at local 

 shows. After a time he left the factory and took to 

 floriculture altogether. That was fifteen years ago. 

 Since then as I found on visiting his place he has 

 developed into a producer on an especially large and 

 successful scale. He lays claim to no scientific training, 

 and told me he had gained his knowledge less from 

 books than from close observation of Nature. He has 

 also carried out an absolutely original system of 

 cultivation, in which perfect efficiency is combined 



