50 OUR ENGLISH LAND MUDDLE. 



' Fruit is the text I take, because fruit 

 is at once the worst example, and just now 

 the most obvious one. But in no branch 

 of agriculture is there anything approaching 

 to modern scientific farming. Wheat 

 farming represents the crown of agricul- 

 tural achievement in England, and very 

 good yields per acre are garnered, because 

 the tillage is careful, the manuring generous, 

 the climate, on the whole, favourable. But 

 what gross waste of labour is involved in 

 the cultivation of these tiny fields, labori- 

 ously ploughed, in many instances with a 

 single furrow plough, often sown by hand, 

 and sometimes even reaped with scythe- 

 men and picturesque but unthrifty gather- 

 ing of haymakers ! 



" In England agriculture is an industry 

 which has remained stagnant since the 

 coming of Free Trade, only surviving, I 

 should say, owing to the dogged love of the 

 land in these English hearts. Farming 

 ' does not pay ' in England. It would not 

 pay, I am told, to attempt scientific fruit 

 farming, because the cheap imported prod- 



