FARMING IN ENGLAND

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22319, 5 February 1938, Page 11

FARMING IN ENGLAND

GLOOMY DESCRIPTION .NEW ZEALANDER’S IMPRESSIONS Mr F. Lissaman, of Scddon, Marlborough, recently returned after a world tour, during which he visited his native town of Corley, Warwickshire. He left there 54 years ago, and his description, as published in the “Coventry Standard,’’ of the deterioration in farming conditions there is certainly frank and free. Mr Lissaman left his native county for New Zealand in 1883, being then 21 years of age, and his recent visit was the first since. “I received a great shock at the state of things I found there,” he wrote. “The county is almost depopulated. The county is a sheep and cattle run. Two farms I knew when a boy each had a population of over 20 souls. Now there are two on each—a man and his wife—and a few cows and swarms of rabbits. I went through what was a fairly large village. There was not a living soul to be seen in it, neither man, woman, child, bird, nor beast. It was absolutely deserted and going to decay. The roofs of some of the houses aie falling in. It is a replica of Goldsmith's Deserted Village. “Since my return I have been over most of England and Scotland, and much the same conditions seem to prevail everywhere. In the' North _of Scotland one can travel 20 or 30 miles and not see a homestead of any kind. Great tracts of the country seem to be deserted and going to wreck. In the South of England it is the same. I have seen thousands of acres of land that have been in cultivation in recent years now covered by gorse and blackberry, ragwort, docks, and Californian thistle, or creeping thistle. The latter, it seems to me. is going to take possession of the whole country if not checked. When it gets a good hold the land is destroyed for cropping. It will choke out any crops sown. It is almost impossible to kill (he thistle. The briar fences everywhere arc neglected and spreading in some cases I have seen them half a chain wide spreading on to the fields.

“I have spoken to many farmers about the state of things. They all say the same thing. They cannot get labour, and oven in many cases of they could get labour they cannot afford to do the work. It makes one wonder what is going to happen. Is the country going to be left derelict? Would it not be wiser before you send men out to settle in the Dominions to settle your own country first? Settlement, like charity, should commence at homo.

“The British have always prided themselves on their common sense. Is it common sense to send thousands of miles for your food and let your own land go to wreck? Is it common sense to build flats in the towns for your country population where they cannot breed a healthy and vigorous race and will not if they could? Is it common sense to keep an army of unemployed and leave your harvest to rot in the fields because the farmers cannot get labour to get the crops in? 1 have seen hundreds of acres of the finest crops in the country rotting in

Scotland because the farmers could not get labour.

“There is another terrible menace 1 that is threatening the country—the rabbit. They are increasing in thousands all over the country, and if they are not kept in check they will turn the land into desert. In Australia and New Zealand I have seen millions of acres of beautiful country turned into desert in a few years, and they will do the same here; perhaps not to the same extent, but they will devastate the land. Which is to keep possession of the land —men or rabbits? It is time you woke up and put on your thinking caps, instead of your sporting caps, and think hard. “You will doubtless say this is very pessimistic. It may be. I have written what I have seen.”

STUD SHEEP EXPORT CORRIEDALES FOR SOUTH AMERICA The export of sheep to other countries continues unabated. The following shipments have been made recently from different breeders by Wright, Stephenson, and Co.; — Estate late H. T, Little (Hawarden) One special stud one-shear Corriedale ram, one special stud Corriedale ram hogget, 13 stud Corriedale ram hoggets (all to the Argentine', five stud Corriedale ewe hoggets to Uruguay. H. Ensor (Rangiora)—One special stud one-shear Corriedale rain to the Argentine. W. W. Mcßae (Waikari)—Five stud Corriedale ewe hoggets, to Uruguay, Bushey Park (Palmerston) —Fiftytwo stud Corriedale ewe noggets, two special stud one-shear Corriedale rams. 10 stud Corriedale ram hoggets, all to the Argentine. W. Bishell (Blenheim)— Two stud Lincoln ram hoggets, one special stud six-tooth Lincoln ram, both to the Argentine. T. A. Stephens (Irwell) —Seventy selected flock Ryeland rams to an Australian buyer.