Page 11 Advertisements Column 5

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22023, 4 August 1933, Page 11

The disorganised state of many markets in France is illustrated by the case of tlie potato growers of Northern Bntany, who had already reduced by a third the area of their plantations, in consequence of the closing of the English market. In May the price of new potatoes suddenly fell from 100 francs the ewt,. at which it was tlie previous week, to 15 francs, which does not cover tlie cost of digging and transport. The result was that (he potatoes wore being allowed to rot in the fields. The growers, many of whom had specialised in this crop, are virtually ruined. Not only the economic, but the social fabric of modern France has been largely built up around the small peasant farmer, the protection of whose interests has become a tradition.