Land Problems and National Welfare 



fast rule, but I have often noticed how such 

 distribution has been effected, probably without 

 conscious forethought, on the continent, most 

 of the cities getting all their supplies from 

 the immediate neighbourhood. The reverse is 

 largely the case with us, and fields of grass, roots 

 or corn are often found almost within the city 

 limits, while the main supply of common veget- 

 ables, such as cabbages, comes from the south 

 of Spain, for instance. 



Talking of cabbages : a few years ago I was 

 wandering amongst the market gardens in the 

 suburbs of Bayreuth, and fell into conversation 

 with an old German who had lived in England. 

 "You English are funny people," he said, "you 

 don't care whether your cabbages are fresh or 

 stale, whether they travel one mile or i,ooo 

 miles. Now we Germans are fond of cabbages, 

 they are to us a necessity ; our tariff would 

 make them a luxury if we did not grow all we 

 wanted, but we do, and they are cheaper than 

 they are in England." 



But it will not always do to endeavour to 

 develop the very small holdings quite near 

 large towns : there are many cases where the 

 land would be too costly, and as long as it 

 rests with County Councils to provide small 

 holdings the question of initial outlay will be 

 a most important one. In fact, in my opinion 

 County Councils have not gone sufficiently into 



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