3o THE STATE AS FARMER 



wheat. The best English farmer has prob- 

 ably little to learn in this matter ; we shall 

 have plenty to do, however, to bring the 

 rest of the fraternity up to his level. There 

 is the right seed to choose, the cleaning and 

 the tilling of the soil to effect, the manuring 

 and the due rotation to arrange, and the 

 weeding to attend to while the crop is growing. 

 Unless these things can be brought about 

 continuously throughout a whole countryside, 

 we might be inclined to admit that they 

 are scarcely worth doing at all. Uniformity, 

 too, over a substantial area would bring 

 better financial results to that area than a 

 medley of different varieties of wheat. For 

 I am now speaking of such wheat areas in 

 Great Britain as are capable of sending con- 

 signments of a reasonable size to the larger 

 mills for urban consumption. I have left 

 for the time the contemplation of our little 

 valley, which requires some small quantity of 

 wheat to satisfy its own modest demands, 

 and am turning to those broader spaces 

 where cereals are the chief crop and stock 

 the minor care. It is not here that the 

 greater losses are occurring from which the 



