A POTATO PIONEER.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 April 1917, Page 5

A POTATO PIONEER.

MOW WILLIAM DENNIS MADS A FORTUNE. 'Country Life" is publishing S !«!••. *, of most interesting reticles on "Modem Forces in Agriculture." A recent article; deals with William Dennis, who, beginning life in 1841 as the son of an agtl'i Cultural laborer in Horsington, Lfficont< ' shire, ha« built up a great business and made a huge fortune out of Wtfttofarming. His career is one of the wk manccs of agriculture. Here are ft teg, 'j details as given in Country Life. , William Dennis, who now owns - JUI ■/; immense estate which has a private iW- -.■ tern of telephone communication, abmtr }> twenty miles of light railway on it' |K • ' l \ cartage purposes, its own carpentry.,. t workshop for the making of carts, *(Q4 fences, and its own blacksmith's aVfk-'';-never went to school. There wail school at Horsington, and even bad t»B»" J '« been one his parents could nop Mn "y spared the money to send him. • At the age of twenty-two WlXUbt Dennis loft Horsington and ve&Vto.'i Kirton, where he still lives, to taketo ( '•>., the position of foreman to the Jtooei If- .. ;'' presentative of a Covent Garden potato. , '. firm. One of his duties was to eunenn< •',''[ tend the packing of potatoes, and tftU ' awakened an interest in potatoes to which he owes his fortune. Ror twelve years Mr. Dennis worked ■ • steadily at his .job, and his reward eaike ' '.' when his employer retired and he Hh •■,' j came the sole Lincolnshire repreMfttatrfei ■ ■■-? of the Covent Garden firm. ' *" : ;.f, Mr. Dennis's thrifty parents had Kb '$ stilled into the boy's mind the virtue % of never spending all he received, how* ,t : > ever small a sum it might be. Ycfuif ' •■/, Dennis.took delight in saving, antt Wul- \>, confessed that he was prouder of J) first sovereign he. carried to the savings ' ,1, 1 ; bank at Louth than he is of his b*ia|C > *,■* balance to-day. Very soon he had '■& I enough to enable- him and a partner to *•./• I purchase seven acres of land, payingAfW . : . it by instalments. The new owners, ),,? planted their ground with potato**) ,*i ??,C bad season followed, the potatoes wen*, rotten, and they lost everything. partner, easily discouraged, readily fc»ntt», ■- ed over his share of the ground, to Den* ' nis, who worked unceasingly upon Jt.'--'-ij And hard work it was, for in thofli. j days practically everything was done WJi« hand. Corn was sown by hand, rcapw*g' with a sickle and threshed with a fl»Jl ' ,*;* Dennis, unlike the surrounding farnv* : . ers, saw the. possibilities of potatoes, ■■ <**; and soon became noted for'his crops. At •■?•> this time the importation of wheat fronj. \£ abroad was ruining English farmer*,'. ' Farm after farm canto into thfl market C; and Mr. Dennis bought them and toB , .* on cultivating potatoes. :■ \n In 1885 tho Covent Garden firm, *»-■,•># whom he was Btill .acting, retired, ant Mr. Dennis then became a merehen* o* ifp his own account. • He established a plage, ',** in London for the sale of potatoes abo«*.-» 1888-7. and thuß introdu(fed the idea of '', * organised distribution for wltf«K\Ma- ; name has become famous in the, teril ■'■<s oultural world. From that time W» , ■'& propertv grew quickly, and he now oWSI **! about 8000 acres, «000; to 2fioo aetM <f ■$ which are allotted to potatoes evfttj; 'k

year. ■ v £ Mr. Dennis has always been one of the .£& most progressive of agriculturists, and. , X inventors have had every reason to bits* 'J? him, for he is ever ready to try a new' IJ* idea, if he is convinced of its practical'.' "j| efficiency. Mr. pennis, too. baa new? ■jk forgotten his own youthful days, and I* vs| at great pains to see, that his agtimiJttN ''% al laborers are as' comfortable as can M , Z and, is in the habit or paying the but . "j* wages to the best men. i'w Now Mr. Dennis's ■sons carry on the /y work, and William Dennis «njoyS * '/.- serene and inactive old age, happy in. -V the knowledge that by Jib own inteHl*'. *■' genco, industry, good judgment and •]>- 'Ji plication tfs has amaßsed « fottur*, «ad has shown that England could bo much more self-supporting if iamerajßt dig-, Y,\ tricts where not*tojMo»J&£ kHbuibl* Z would do as IfiggfJUMt? "f-Z