324 POSSIBILITIES OF THE SITUATION 



suit altered conditions, the recovery would have been 

 much more rapid. 



All the same, that recovery is an actuality of the day. 

 It may not be along the old lines, but it is a recovery, 

 all the same, for those able and willing to take advantage 

 of it. So far has it gone already, in fact, that there are 

 fruit-growers, market-gardeners, and others who have 

 much to say about * over-production.' For my own 

 part, I adhere to the view that there would be much less 

 talk of over-production if the system of marketing were 

 improved. Notwithstanding all that has been done 

 during the last few years in the way of opening up 

 direct supplies to retailers in the smaller towns instead 

 of leaving them to buy from wholesale men in the large 

 centres there is a great deal more that could be done 

 in this direction. There are many other towns which, 

 for one commodity or another, should be put on the 

 same footing. There are towns with numerous popula- 

 tions which have not yet any market at all. There are 

 important suburban districts of large cities to which, 

 one would think, direct supplies could be sent, reducing 

 the expenses of the retailer, and enabling him to sell 

 cheaper, in which case a greater demand should follow. 

 There are seaside resorts, on the Cornish coast and 

 elsewhere, which still look to London for their eggs, and 

 butter, and other produce, as though such supplies were 

 not obtainable elsewhere, and especially in their own 

 neighbourhood. There are scores of villages where, 

 though people live in the * country,' commodities of one 

 kind or another are often difficult to get or prohibitive 

 in price ; and there are thousands of homes throughout 

 the land where good wholesome fruit and vegetables 

 still count as luxuries. Who can say there is over- 

 production when conditions such as these obtain ? 



The glut that follows when too much of a certain 



