Country Life
A REAL Am to FARMERS.
A thoughtful scheme for helping the more intensive farmer has been worked out in the Ministry of Agriculture, has been earefidly expressed in graphs, both plain and coloured with persuasive arrows and headlines, and the exhibit of its virtues is being sent round the country. The Ministry has put its finger on one of the root deficiencies in English agriculture. Marketing is its worst branch ; and in this new and special campaign the Ministry is concentrating on the sale of potatoes. Now, in Germany, when there is a bumper yield of this very valuable crop, the surplus is converted into such things as commercial alcohol and farina. In Britain the surplus is thrown at once on the market, because everyone is afraid of falling prices. Even a small surplus thus thrust on an un- willing market may make prices tumble to any extent—in a recent example from £5 a ton to £2. A neighbour farmer of mine some years ago lost the huge amount of £16 an acre owing solely to this cause.
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