It is possible, perhaps probable, that by specializing and the
use of machines, which accelerate the harvest and reduce the number of hands, it will become possible to grow grain more cheaply than in the days of low wages ; but however greatly the process be cheapened, it cannot possibly make wheat growing pay, if the crop is grown for sale off the farm. It seems to be inevitable to-day that if grain is to be grown in England—and it is almost necessary for rotation and for the need of the straw—it must be used as fodder for stock of some sort—for pigs, poultry or cattle. It is perhaps a sign that this principle is becoming recognized that intelligent farmers (if they still have some capital to spend) are setting up their own grinding apparatus for the manufacture of their own meal. The extinction of the local wind and water mills, which were intimately connected with the old form of local farming, begins to make such an experiment necessary for the bigger holdings. The extension of electricity to the farm (though the benefit is unnecessarily withheld by some of the larger public utility companies) • helps in more favoured districts to simplify such machinery. " The push button farm " is not a catch phrase only. It was first applied to the pioneer farms organized by Mr. Borlase Matthews at East Grinstead ; and more ingenious little devices are to be seen there than anywhere else ; but the use of electric devices (including freezing apparatus) is increasing, not least in the west—for example, in Lancashire and Herefordshire, where the electric companies are admirably public spirited ; and all the world is looking for the results of the Bedfordshire experiment.
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