The Landowner 



seeks to flourish in close connection with the 

 agricultural industry, thus became an impos- 

 sibility. It might have proved to be a remedy ; 

 not a thorough one, it is true, but it would have 

 sufficed to retard the fall in the value of the 

 land and to check the depopulation of the 

 country districts. I firmly believe that even 

 to-day it is capable of breathing new life into 

 English agriculture. I could not discover that 

 the sugar beet is grown anywhere in England, 

 and in reply to my question why it is not grown 

 there, I always received the answer : The sugar 

 sent us by Germany is so cheap that we cannot 

 compete with it. This I cannot understand. 

 The bounty system which formerly provided 

 England with such cheap sugar was given up 

 long ago ; the soil of England is for the most 

 part more fertile than that of Germany ; the 

 ground rent is less than in Germany ; on 

 similar soil the German farmer grows sugar 

 beet with success, and pays double the rent 

 that the English farmer does. There seems to 

 be no reason why the cultivation of sugar beet, 

 which is possible in Germany, should not be 

 successfully carried out in England. The 

 English land system is particularly favourable 

 to it ; the farmer could grow the beet, and the 

 landlord could run the factory in which the 

 sugar is extracted from it. Both parties could 

 be bound by long contracts, and both thus have 



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