THE NEW AGRICULTURE 
201 
" to oblige ” at the various farms, but not regularly delivered 
even in the village centers. These berries compete with 
Boston berries, two quarts for a quarter, which are sold at the 
village provision store, or will be delivered within reasonable 
limits. Result : the village store is stocked with city prod- 
uce. Naturally it takes the easier and steadier source of 
supply ; and yet this very township could not for a moment 
be described as the " hilly, stony, exhausted margin of culti- 
vation.” Quite the reverse ; it is a country where, nearly 
every year, excellent apples rot on the ground, and where 
blackberries and raspberries hang shriveling on the bushes, 
or fall, dead-ripe, for lack of picking. Meanwhile, the scat- 
tered farmers, land-poor, drudge from dawn till dusk to make 
both ends meet. 
At first, one is always puzzled to explain why this stream 
of ” green groceries ” invariably flows in one direction, coun- 
tryward, and in a direction exactly contrary to what might 
be called the natural laws of economic gravitation. But the 
grade of country produce explains this. Quality, after all, is 
the thing, and far back in the country this is rarely high 
enough to bring the fancy prices which would cover trans- 
portation ; and, of course, rates which a railroad might make 
for an association of growers would by no chance be offered 
to the single farmer. Little wonder that there is depression 
in farming circles. 
The cure of any trouble, whether local or national, is 
often best reached by looking beyond our own borders. So 
let us turn our attention for a moment to the present agri- 
cultural situation in Europe. The Man with the Hoe is 
fortunately not an American product, and yet who shall 
say that he cannot teach us something .? Surely the story 
of his uplift may act upon our own countrymen as a much- 
needed tonic, for many an economic danger which has 
