THE BRITISH FARMER

Dunstan Times, Issue 3143, 13 November 1922, Page 2

THE BRITISH FARMER

Britain's "greatest national industry" is the subject of a well-roasoiied essay entitled "Education and Research in Agriculture" in tlio new number of the Quarterly, by S 1.. Bensusaii. The methods of the typical farmer are criticised, and the prevalence of unintelligent routine is the theme of several pertinent paragraphs:— "The farmer has the orchard his grandfather or the grandfather of a contemporary planted, and was the first and has to care for. Lichen and) fungus have invaded the trunks; woolly aphis and a. score of other pestn have found safe harborage on the apple tree branches; the plums have silver-leaf: when pears grow, they cracks and shrivel, Fortunately, there is a tradition in the family that the orchard never did do much good and that there is no market for fruit : so nobody prunes the trees, or sprays them in the spring, or washes them in the autumn, or sets grease-hands to catch the winter-moths, or cuts out the plum branches that the silver-leaf has destroyed. A report issued in 1920 stated that upwards of lii'ty thousand; acres of cultivable land in the West of Kngland were under worthless orchards." The farmer's wile, who "looks after" the fowls- -too often with an equally ( j'.sy-going routine, and with no knowledge of selection or careful breeding for good egg-laying strains, is criticised, and the author proceeds: "So year succeeds year and son to father, and the machinery of production runs at half-speed, and the good year must pay for the bad one and

tho work run on through a seven-day week, year in and year out, until, at last, the feeble hands can carry tho burden no longer and Mother Earth welcomes her helper to his rest. He may have driven the hardest bargains ; he may have been the sternest taskmaster' but by reason of his natural ignorance of" soil-chemistry, food values, and economics, he has, though ho knows it not, been beaten all the time, enriching many a. merchant and middle man whom ho has never seen. Wo have in Great Britain a quarter of a. million farmers to-day. exclusive of, small-holders who are nearly as many; in all probability the number of those to which the foregoing description would apply runs; far into six figures.'" That there is some excuse for these unproductive methods with the small and backward farmer is admitted; 'it is well to remember his secluded life and tho hard work that Jills his days. Ho sees his friends or acquaintances when ho goes to market; at other times his family and workers must suffice him. . . lie is losing, or has lost, the stimulus derived from a landlord who is a. keen agriculturist. . . Yet, with all his faults and merits, be i.s tho staplo material of the agricultural community." The policy of the Ministry of Agriculture is the subject of some severe criticism, and there are other interesting points. Thus : "Even the rat. which penalises every man, woman, and child in these islands by wasting tons of millions of pounds worth of food and spreading disease among mankind and animals, is nominally under surveillance. Unfortunately, although we have on the Statute Book a Rat and Mice (l)estruct) Act, its administration has been neglected."