232 FIELD AND HEDGEROW. 
from what they were thirty years since, when they 
first donned their uniforms, The railways may bring 
their books and any number of their officers to prove 
that everything is perfectly satisfactory, but the 
feeling remains, nevertheless, that it is exactly the 
contrary. 
Look at the map, and place the finger on any of the 
spaces between the lines of rail. Take, then, the case of 
a farmer in the midst of that space, not more than five 
or six miles from the metals, and able at times to hear 
the distant whistle of the engines, but not less than eight 
from a station. This present season he finds his wheat 
damaged by the rain after it was cut, and he comes to 
the conclusion that he must supplement his ordinary 
crops by some special culture in order to make his way. 
On the last occasion he was in a large city he was much 
struck by the quantity of fruit which he found was im- 
ported from abroad. The idea naturally occurs to him 
of setting aside some ten or twenty acres of his holding 
of four hundred or five hundred for the culture of fruit. 
He goes to his landlord, who is only too willing to give 
him every facility, provided that no injury be done to 
the soil. He faces the monstrous injustice of the extra- 
ordinary tithes, and expends fresh capital in the plant- 
ing of various kinds of fruit. 
In places at that distance from a station labour is 
dear relative to the low profit on the ordinary style of 
farming, but very cheap relative to the possible profits 
on an improved and specialised system. The amount 
of extra labour he thus employs in the preparation of the 
ground, the planting, cleaning, picking, and packing, is 
an inestimable boon to the humbler population. Not 
only men, but women and children can assist at times, 
and earn cnough to add an appreciable degree of comfort 
