22 MARCH 1935, Page 18

Early Efforts It is perhaps worth while recalling that another

American of great wealth and much humane zeal made a costly experi- ment in intensive farming in Essex not far from the site of Mr. Ford's farms. At his request I visited the place more than once and saw the accounts. The farm produced beautiful fruit and vegetables, but it was modelled very closely on the system of the maraichers near Paris and the Dutch gardeners of The Hague. It is difficult, and generally unwise, to transplant an alien system, especially into an insular environment. The wages bill made an economic balance almost impossible ; but the ideal was the right ideal ; and the pioneers who fail deserve their place in the history of success. " The victors, when they come . . . And their bodies by the wall."