Farming in England

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXVII, Issue 8562, 17 August 1904, Page 1

Farming in England

(Lyttelton Times Correspondent.) London, June 17. ' A New Zealander who is re-visiting the I Old Country after twenty-four years of farming experience at the Antipodes has just completed an extensive tour of the southern English counties, and liis comments on English farming methods, as outlined in a letter to the London Standard, make interesting reading. The intellectual apathy of the average English farm laborer did not fail to strike the visitor, and the explanation he offers seems the natural one. "Tliis want of interest," he says, "is simply the apathy engendered of starvation both of mind and body, and can only be remedied by giving them a fair share of what their labor produces. As soon, as they get better pay, they will get- better food; better food will bring better brains, and brains will take care that education is supplied." The antiquity of tools and methods still largely in vogue has been often noted. The New Zealander illustrates the defect by a contrast from his own observation and experience. "Fancy," he says, "a farmer using three horses, on© man and one boy to turn one furrow about nine by five. In New Zealand one man, one double-furrow plough and three horses (abreast) would do two furrows at once." The visitor is also struck by the fact that tho fanner and his family do not themselves work as they do in New Zealand. They ought, he drily observes, to be country gentlemen in receipt of an income of £IO,OOO per annum. The advantages of co-operation are strongly urged. A first-class co-operative dairy worked on the lines of the New Zealand concerns would probably pay, in the opinion of this critic, 10 or 12 per cent, on the outlay. "A good factory, with creameries, could be erected at a cost of about £3OOO, -. properly equipped and furnished; there could follow afterwards the bacon factory, which is a sine qua non, and the general storekeeper's business." The complicated systems of land tenure in this country are boldly attacked by this New Zealand. "The laws, regulations, customs, and conditions regarding the tenure of land are all wrong; restrictions seem to have been framed not to encourage honest men to deal fairly with land, but- to restrain rogues and thieves. Under existing conditions, it is no wonder that farmers try to get all they can, because they are so fenced round with harassing conditions that they cannot get all they might, or are entitled to." The stolid conservatism of the English fanner makes the New Zealander very impatient. "It is almost impossible," he declares; "to get even the unprejudiced and right kind of man to forsake old ruts for good sound going. Cold water is thrown on any innovation. Although the method may never have had a fair trial, it is condemned because it was not done by the 'forefathers.' It is quite a moral that- English farmers cannot grow mutton to compete with New Zealand, nor beef to compete with America or Argentine; therefore, why not accept the inevitable, and give it up? You cannot grow wheat at a profit—so you say. Then give it up, too. Canada is ready "to supply all* you want. Dairy produce you can make, and at a big profit; so why not. go into the matter in a proper way? Not in the tin-pot style that I see here, but in a manner worthy of the old traditions that belong to the country." But, as lie observes, there is an utter want of co-operation on the part of the English farming community. An effort is to be made this year to arouse the spirit of .combination amongst the farmers of England, but with what success remains to be seen. Certain it is that until they learn to sink all local jealousies and prejudices and to bind themselves together in the interests of the industry as a _ whole, fanning in Great Britain will continue to labor under the disadvantage the New Zealander has noted.