OF AGRICULTURE. 219 



France ; and the export traffic on the railways 

 radiating from that little town is as lively as 

 if it were a busy industrial spot. 



One cannot read the pages given by Mr. 

 Rider Haggard to the Bewdley and Evesham 

 districts without being impressed by what can 

 be obtained from the soil in England, and by 

 what has to be done by the nation and all those 

 who care for its well-being in obtaining from the 

 soil what it is ready to give, if only labour be 

 applied to it. 



In the Bewdley district we see very well 

 how the efforts of a Small Holdings Society are 

 giving the opportunity to a number of small 

 farmers to transform an indifferent and some- 

 times very poor or stony land into a fertile soil 

 which yields rich crops of fruit, and upon which 

 the keeping of milch-cows is combined with 

 fruit-growing. We see also how in the big farms, 

 as well as in the small ones, fruit-growing is 

 carried on with knowledge and care and, 

 consequently, with a substantial profit for both 

 the community and the farmers which makes 

 the author exclaim : " How different in most 

 counties ! In Norfolk, for instance (and I may 

 add in Devonshire), the ordinary farm orchard 

 is stocked as a rule with faggot-headed trees 

 pruned only by the wind. Even the dead wood 

 is left uncut ; yet it is common to hear farmers 



