282 OUR ENGLISH LAND MUDDLE. 



clear to all that, for national purposes, the rating 

 on " unimproved values " will be best. 



In regard to the principle of agricultural 

 education there is a fairly general consent in 

 England. But none of the systems so far 

 mooted seem to me to be either extensive enough 

 or practical enough. The great need is for 

 elementary technical agricultural education on 

 a sufficiently large scale to make available a new 

 fund of skilled labour for the land. Training 

 farms with an eye for the economies of produc- 

 tion and marketing as well as for systems of 

 culture are needed, and plenty of them. 



Let me illustrate with an Australian example. 

 On the Hawkesbury State Fruit Farm (N.S.W.) 

 there is a small fruit-preserving and jam-making 

 factory. In the season, fruit is gathered every 

 day, the " windfalls " as well as the ripe fruit on 

 the tree. The perfect fruit goes to the fresh 

 fruit market ; all defective fruit to the factory, 

 where the good parts of it are used for preserved 

 fruit or for jam. If a ' windfall " peach has 

 only a quarter of the bulk sound, that quarter is 

 utilized. The rest — the fruit offal, as it is 

 called — with peelings and so on, is sterilized and 



