86 THE STATE AS FARMER 



and he will arrange every detail of the work, 

 from the choice of breeds and the feeding of 

 the stock to the marketing of the very smallest 

 portion of offal. If this be the case, does it 

 not seem an infinitely painful fact that under 

 present conditions, although we may put 

 down plant to cope with every acre in our 

 district, we are not in a position to insist 

 that every such acre should send up its quota 

 at regular intervals so that the agricultural 

 machinery may turn out the produce which 

 the State must have ? If we deliberately 

 ' scrap ' vessels that have cost us immense 

 sums because they are out of date and there- 

 fore dangerous to trust to, ought we to be 

 less decided in this question of food, and 

 should we not put an end to a system of land 

 tenure which mocks at our national wishes 

 and thwarts our endeavours towards self- 

 preservation ? 



The pig has always been looked upon as the 

 labourer's friend. We can make him of still 

 more use to the worker's family if we study 

 the best method of housing him at the foot 

 of the cottage garden. We do not wish to 

 see him stretched at full length upon the floor 



