M.— AGRICULTURE. 



Index-Numbers. 



23'.) 



It is noteworthy that the disparity between the pre-War and post-War 



prices is most marked in the cheaper cuts. 



It may be mentioned incidentally that the current retail price of 

 potatoes is at least six times and that of plums at least ten times the 

 price being paid to their producers. 



England greatly needs, on the part of those lando'wners whose ma- 

 terial resources admit, the provision of such factory or other equipment 

 as will make agricultural estates to a greater extent self-contained indus- 

 trial units depending less upon the outside world for the rf..w materials of 

 the rural industry * and for the absorptiori or conversion of its output. 



Such estates personally managed by their owners as business 

 concerns were to be found in many parts of the Continent, notably in 

 Hungary. In Belgium those of JBaron Peers at Oostcamp and of the 

 Chevalier de Vriere at Bloemendael, and in France that of the Viscomte 

 Arthur de Chezelle (who introduced ensilage into England) at Le 

 Boulleaume, Oise, may be mentioned as examples deserving of English 

 imitation. 



There are probably few directions in which landowners can more 

 usefully employ their salutary influence and organising capacity than 

 in that of finding profitable outlets for the agricultural produce of their 

 estates. As a good illustration of what can usefully be done in this 

 direction may be selected the enterprise of potato-growers in the Wash 

 district of Lincolnshire in catering for the special requirements of the 

 chip-potato trade in the North of England, and of the Evesham market 

 gardeners in satisfying the predilections of Lancashire mill hands in the 

 production of spring onions of a special description and flavour. Both 

 enterprises have resulted in the acquisition by their growers of 

 considerable wealth and prosperity. 



■» M. Terentius Varro (b.c. 36) in his De Re Rustica, Lib. I., Cap. XXII., 

 said : ' Quae e fundo sumi non poterunt, ea si empta erunt potius ad utilitatem. 

 quam ob speciem, siimptu fructum non extenuabunt. Eo magis, si inde empta 

 erunt potissimum, ubi ea et bona et proximo et vilissimo sint enii poterunt.' 

 1922 s 



