Fortunes for Farmers 



or landowner with a submarine and timely bomb 

 in mid-Channel. 



The worst danger is the chemical protection 

 of perishable articles for transit. Already New 

 Zealand or Argentine frozen mutton and Austra- 

 lian chilled beef make inroads on our graziers' 

 purses, and as these processes improve and cheapen 

 so we must suffer. Chicago horrors or Chinese 

 pork are but a foretaste. Some day we may eat, 

 unknowingly, worse than these. 



The most crushing tax is that of the railways. 

 It is unnecessary to give the time-worn details, 

 and there is hope that with the growth of small 

 holdings and market gardens we may obviate 

 this, for road transit has begun and will not cease. 

 Either the railways must revise their parcel 

 system, cease to preferentially favour the foreigner 

 and foster home trade, or we must become 

 independent. The Post Office might solve the 

 difficulty. Farmers' telephones will help, and 

 even more the marketing by farmers or their 

 representatives of their produce, an outcome of 

 the Co-operative movement. It is not realized 

 by the public what a grievous toll is taken by the 

 railways, the markets, and the middleman, or 

 there would be a revolt. But we must alter that. 



Already we are co-operating; the Farmers' 

 Union has sprung into existence, and is marching 



106 



