32 THE STATE AS FARMER 



course, only a mystery while we refuse to 

 believe that farmers and the landed interest 

 would prefer that a large proportion of our 

 people should starve rather than that the 

 necessary food should be imported from abroad 

 and prices be kept down. But, supposing 

 that the farmer and his landlord admit that 

 food of some kind should be allowed to enter 

 the State, it is a mystery why wheat should 

 bear the burden of obloquy. From its nature 

 it is the most suitable thing to carry across 

 the seas, for the journey improves rather than 

 injures it, whereas the same cannot be said 

 of meat or eggs. But, looking at farming here 

 at home, as if for the moment there were 

 no imports, success depends, not upon one 

 crop or kind of stock, but upon the due inter- 

 mingling of them all. A man would not grow 

 wheat or hay, and buy manure : feed stock, 

 and buy turnips and meal ; he endeavours, 

 as far as he can, to keep stock enough to 

 manure his land and to grow swedes and 

 meal sufficient to feed his beasts. By united 

 action over a large area the difficulties of 

 doing the best with the soil, and with the profit 

 and loss account also, are still further met, 



