36 Efforts of County Councils are 



often been so badly done, and with so little discrimi- 

 nation, that a vast amount of preventable loss has 

 occurred in all parts of these islands. And this loss has 

 been largely increased owing to the fact that, from the 

 want of proper means of instruction being at hand, the 

 seedsmen themselves were as ignorant of the seeds they 

 sold as were the people who bought them ; and hence an 

 enormous loss was inflicted on the purchasers of seeds, 

 as we shall see in a future chapter. The so-called 

 seedsmen were really not seedsmen at all, but merely 

 shopkeepers who sold seeds, of which they either had 

 no knowledge, or none worthy of the name. They 

 ordered seeds from the large seed importers, who took, 

 with little or no enquiry, seeds sent them from abroad, 

 and passed them on, with all their weed seeds in 

 addition. 



In this connection I may observe that had such 

 schools and farms existed an immense advantage would 

 have been gained from the instruction they would have 

 affoi'ded, not only as regards fruit and vegetable growing, 

 but also — and this is of even more importance still — as 

 regards the means, now so largely employed abroad, 

 of preserving fruits and vegetables. And I know of no 

 more marked instance of the evil results arising from 

 the neglect of a civilised Government of the material 

 interests of its people than has occurred in the case of 

 our neglect of what other Governments have done in the 

 way of agricultural education; for, while preserved fruits 

 and vegetables are so largely used abroad, we have 

 actually had, for the requirements of our Navy, to 

 purchase preserved vegetables in France and Germany. 

 My friend, Dr. Voelcker, has brought out an interesting 

 article on this subject in the Royal Agricultural Society's 

 Journal, but neither his article, able though it is, nor 

 any number of articles, can be of any widely-spread 

 practical value till the Government provides an adequate 

 informative agency in each agricultural centre. 



I may observe, lastly, that the spasmodic eftbrts which 



