5 MARCH 1932, Page 13

It is a surprise to find the decks of passenger

ships in the harbour of Madeira loaded with little frail baskets full of French beans for the London market. It is hardly less unexpected to see over the top of a Cornish wall, enclosing a field not so much bigger than a barn, a peasant loading boxes with flowers and vegetables directed to Newcastle, Birmingham, Glasgow, London and other great towns, which have included, on a rare occasion or two, Berlin. The biggest flower farm I came upon had thirty-five acres of daffodils ; and this is a large area, if we reckon by the returns from it or the labour spent on it. You could find many a thousand-acre piece in Other parts of England where fewer men laboured for much

less gain. * * * *