Country Life
A FARMING REVIVAL ?
One may not speak of a general revival in British farming; if only for the reason that quoted examples of ruin and loss rain on the head of any and every articulate optimist. Farm- ing is one of the most difficult and various of all professions, especially in a country which is regarded from Denmark to the Antipodes as the greatest market in the world. Wherever there is a superfluity of any food, or indeed of most other goods, London is the place that first enters the producer's mind. We are insular, but not isolated. Our insularity prevents co-operation (the secret of success in both Denmark and Canada), and our want of isolation is not a negative quality : it may be expressed as the provision of cheap transport. The sea, since the days of steam, is the very con- trary of the " moat defensive " of Elizabethan days. More than this, our consumers as well as many retailers are apt to show a naughty preference for what is imported. Were not even hospitals buying Canary potatoes at £17 a ton when they could get good English at about £7 or less ?
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