26 THE STATE AS FARMER 



The beef and mutton would be bred to avoid 

 that waste in useless fat, and they would be 

 so placed as to use the pastures to the best 

 advantage. The actual killing and weighing 

 would be the substitute for the auctioneer's 

 hammer. And there would be no markets 

 in the ordinary sense to rig. 



I turn to pleasanter themes than killing — 

 unless it be the green fly — and ask the reader 

 to consider a different kind of farm altogether. 

 But even on this fruit farm we want the pig 

 and poultry because of the manure which the 

 soil needs. Yet it is difficult to describe to 

 the disheartened buyer in the town the cross- 

 currents and dangers and difficulties involved 

 in an undertaking of this kind. At the present 

 moment we do not know how we are to get 

 our strawberries to the market ; and, if we 

 want to turn them promptly into jam for our 

 good troops, what possible chance have we 

 of the proper price due for the labour and 

 pluck and perseverance that have been 

 bestowed on these plants ? The items I 

 have referred to earlier give some indication 

 of the double injustice of the present system 



