* * What forms of produce, through the bad times
of the last few years have consistently paid the producer ? Dairy produce, especially milk and, rather surprisingly, cheese ; sugar beet (of which much the largest acreage in the annals is being planted this spring), poultry, some fruits and some vegetables. British wool is likely to become dearer, and to add value to the already valuable sheep. We are told by Sir William Haldane that beef must become an increasingly valuable product. So far, so good. The grain crops, on the other hand, have mostly lost money and at the best made very small sums ; and such intensive crops as hops and potatoes have at intervals caused very heavy losses, up to nearly £20 an acre in extreme cases, owing to collapse of prices. It is because the catastrophe of grain, especially wheat farming, has thrown so much land back to grass or prairie, or a mixture of the two, that one especially welcomes such restoration of the barren as the organizers of the Hughes' Settlement have secured. Even in so minute an experiment may lie the seeds of wider success.
Previous page
