THE STATE AS FARMER 83 



all the chances of markets. Here, up a little 

 hidden valley, is a farmer who considers the 

 likelihood of profit in various directions and 

 weighs in the balance the pig. He has little 

 choice of breed, being shut up to the nearest 

 thing he can buy. He makes a shot at 

 feeding, and has but little to select from, 

 seeing that grass, grass, grass is the usual 

 rotation. Who can tell what the result will 

 be, and how can he market this result ? 

 He cannot, and does not : he just kills and 

 eats the product, and there it ends. 



Now a bacon factory in the area of his 

 valley takes him and his neighbours in hand 

 — a bacon factory, I mean, such as I have 

 asked for, run by the State in all its rami- 

 fications. The first thing to decide upon 

 is the breed to adopt. That, probably, would 

 be settled by using the particular kind which 

 the best judges in the valley had been 

 using, and perhaps importing a little new 

 blood to rectify the weaknesses of the local 

 specimens. The general arrangements for 

 feeding — not overfeeding — and keeping clean 

 would form the substance of a leaflet, and 

 the manager of the district would supplement 



G 1 



