Fortunes for Farmers 



are no bigger than ordinary fields, and who pay- 

 as much as .£20 per acre for rent, and sometimes 

 clear ^100 an acre in produce. 



In " Rural England," Rider Haggard made a 

 survey of agriculture, returning with a lamentable 

 tale of ruin. Farmers everywhere, he found, were 

 struggling against hard fate, the shrewdest only 

 holding their own. But in his journey he un- 

 fortunately missed the part he should have visited 

 first — the Fens. Here, if he had known, lay the 

 key to the problem, and if only he had settled 

 amongst the Fens, instead of the Broads, he 

 would have been a happier farmer than his 

 " Year Book " portrays. 



It seems wholly a question of soil, for given 

 good land small holdings flourish and agriculture 

 smiles. In the Scilly and Channel Islands, around 

 Evesham, in some parts of Kent and Bedfordshire, 

 and in that stretch of country which runs from 

 Lincoln to Ely, the small man holds his own 

 against the rich neighbour. The industrious 

 man can get on with little capital, and from the 

 Socialistic point of view it is a near approach 

 to Paradise. 



A man may start here with a few pounds on 

 as many acres, and make his way to any height. 

 Some of the most prominent farmers in Lincoln- 

 shire began with nothing. One was a labourer, 



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