Farming And Society

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32032, 5 July 1969, Page 4

Farming And Society

The Farm and the Village. By George Ewart Evans. Faber. 181 pp.

The internal combustion engine did away with farming processes and customs which had persisted for thousands of years. Fortunately there are still men and women living who were brought up under the old system of farming and from their memories and other sources Mr Evans has written an excellent series of books about the farm and the old farming community in East Anglia. The fourth and latest volume Is intended mainly for younger readers but will no doubt be eagerly sought by adult readers who have enjoyed the earlier books. Mr Evans feels that it is profitable to study the history of farming against the background of the society which it nourished. In his book he has followed the main line of farming in East Anglia suggesting its active links with the society of the region. Some of the chapters are concerned with the great changes brought about by the advent of modern machinery and be successfully draws on the memories of the generation which practised the old techniques, regarding them as living archives or documents in that they can teach the details of farming and a way of life in the village which had changed little since biblical; times.

In.,discussing early man’s first method of making a seed bed,, he reveals .the origin of the present-day practice of stubble, burning and recalls how turf was hurned in Idins for adt for fertiliser. Seed wai broadcast by hand or planted with a dibbing sfick artd the digging stick or stone hoe-blade drawn by a man (or more probably a woman) led to the employment of a beast which in turn could - pull a stouter and heavier stick and blade which led to the development of the plough. Great importance was attached to the con, dition of the soil before

planting and in some areas of Suffolk it was a common practice for the farmer needing warm soil for the sowing of barley to take down* his trousers and sit bare on the seed bed. It appears that if after this fundamental exercise the land was deemed fit for sowing, the barley would germinate quickly and be up in three days! The author deals fully with the old methods of weeding and harvesting, discussing the various merits of the sickle and the scythe, recalling aids such as the barley bale and the poverty stick and old practices such as riding the goat Although East Anglia is noted mainly for its arable farming, certain periods in history have seen its land used as pasture for sheep and cattle and Mr Evans has been just as successful in his explorations and historical delvings into pastorlal farming lore. In keeping with his theme, he presents some lively pen-portraits of the craftsmen of the village—the harness-maker, tailor, blacksmith, miller and millwright—and shows how the individual communities were living unities because the majority of their inhabitants were bound together directly' or indirectly by the work. In his conclusion, the author looks at the contemporary farming scene in his area in its historical perspective. The small farmer with his present- uncertain future could become one of history’s casualties in the same way as his forebear was displaced by enclosure movements 200 years ago. Only by becoming a member of a group which shares both machinery and buying and marketing facilities can he escape extinction but this would be communal or co-operative farming, a return on a higher level to the structure of the Middle Ages. This lively and most informative book is illustrated with line drawing and black and white photographs and contains appendices, a glossary and an index.