DIGGERS IN JERSEY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 17945, 24 November 1932, Page 11

DIGGERS IN JERSEY

LIFTING THE POTATOES INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION Writing from Jersey, Channel Islands, Mr. Guy Porter, a. former resident of Gisborne, gives this interesting sketch of rural life in that part of the world: “As you say that you are interested in Jersey,’ I’ll tell you about our great experiment'last spring, parly potatoes, late tomatoes and naked visitors are our three main sources of income, and while wo are able to work the two latter by ourselves, we have, for “lifting” tiie potatoes, always imported thousands of Bretons of both sexes. Pa wielded the fork, Ma and the kids sorted and packed the tubers, and from daylight to dark they wrought like devils unchained. Piecework, of course. And as the Jersey farmer understands I French, their incessant chatter was mostly in Breton, which is like Welsh, but worse if possible, and which the farmer suspected of being used to make uncomplimentary remarks about himself.

“At dusk they would doss down in the farm outbuildings occupied in winter by ‘seed’ potato boxes, and after consuming yards of bread brought from a French baker in St. Helier, and salt pork brought by themselves from Brittany, and gallons of cider provided by the farmer, would sleep promiscuously on the straw until daylight, when the process would lie repeated. “Little stocky people, hard as nails and vivacious as monkeys, they bad the usual French indifference to sanitation, and left the farm atmosphere worse than they found it, and that’s saying a lot. Their last act before leaving Jersey was to change all their English money into French, and this often amounted, to £IOO for Pa, Ma and baby, as they spent practically nothing here. Our .shopkeepers didn’t like that at all, and lost no opportunity of pointing out how immoral the French are. Our politicians didn’t like the French consul in Jersey, who, whenever there was a dispute' between Jersey and France, got his own way Gy threatening to stop Breton labor. And the Jersey farmer felt the truth of the old saying that the best way to make yourself boss is to make yourself indispensable (or words to that effect—see Holy Writ), because the Breton was paid according to the area dug, and if the farmer protested that by digging so furiously ho was spoiling the crop, the Breton would grin, jabber in Welsh, and continue as before. He was top dog and knew it, being perhaps the world’s champion potato digger. “With one prong of his fork lie would Hick a potato off the ground into a basket 6ft. away, which was bad for the potato, especially if a new one. Still, after all, the fanner wanted his potatoes out as quickly a,s possible, firstly to catch the early market, and secondly to get his tomato plants in before too late in the season.

“So that’s the kind of happy family wo were every spring until the last. It was the fall in sterling that started it! And then ‘the stick began to beat the dog’ etc. all down the line. The Breton wanted the same pay in francs, i. 0., more in sterling. The farmer couldn’t give it. Our Government wrote to Westminster somcvvhat as follows;

‘We are grieved about the sad state of the Empire and want to doi oar bit, and particularly to help solve the terrible unemployment in England, so why not help us to employ clean-living. Englishmen, rather than immoral Frenchmen V “And Westminster replied: ‘Thanks very much, it’s awfully good of you and you may have as many -of our unemployed as are willing to go and you needn’t trouble to return them if they’ll stay there, and we’ll advertise all over Southern England and see that you get good men only.’ So they advertised, ‘Wanted to dig potatoes in Jersey, SODO men, free passage, cheap liquor raid tobacco, al fresco picnics, only tboso who have been educated at the expanse of the taxpayer and can define \a) a potato fork and (h) a potato in JJ.B.C accent need apply.’ “And the Jersey shopkeeper was pleased because he knew that bho Englishman is less thrifty than the Breton. And the farmer was pleased because he was tired of being under-dog all the time. And the Jersey politician was pleased because he was calling the French consul’s bluff. B’at the Jersey publican looked anxious ■‘And so did the half dozen or so Jersey policemen, because you see the Breton is horn with a corkscrew m one b.and (he has a potato fork in the otjier) and knows how to use it properly , but the modern Englishman knows nothing about corkscrews as lie cannot pay 12s 6d a bottle for whisky and diluted at that, and whisky in* Jersey ‘is only 8s and much stronger.

“When the 3000 got here and were .shown a potato fork, some of them fainted and others said words that were worse than Welsh because we knew what they meant, and it was not a 8.8. C. accent at all. The publicans said to tho police, ‘How about it?’ and the police said, ‘Never mind, they 11 have to dig some potatoes before they get Bs-~-look at them!’ “In this crisis the Jersey farmer came ‘nobly to the rescue. Accustomed to judging livestock, and knowing that his potatoes must he dug now or never, his eagle eye, which lias made the Jersey cow what she is, quickly showed him what he was up against. ‘Come oil, !>oys,’ lie said, ‘there’s room for six in this cart; it's a treat to see you after those dirty Bretons; it's not going to !«'■ piecework for a- few days while 1 tokich you and pay you wages, and whom it is piecework I'll give you a hanitl myself for nothing when I’m not. busy, and the missis says she’ll show you. how to boil potatoes. Never mind that fork, it's not half as bad as it looks; the handle is at the other end fixmi the spikes. I’ll hack an Englishnan against a frog-eating Frenchman any day.’ “So the 3<XK) were scattered all over the island and when the farmer found that one was hopeless, which was pretty often, he sent him back to England, where he wrote letters to the papers about slave driving in Jersey. And the police and the puhlipaais had a lively time, especially on Saturday nights, hat as the diggers generally fought each other, the best plan was to let them tire themselves out and put them on the boat. And the Jersey papers were told that a still tongue shows a wise head, and the potatoes were dug, though later than usual. “One English digger said he would dig more perches in a day than any Breton, though ns the Breton didn’t know there was a match on and was about half the size of the Englishman,

it doesn’t seem a fair go. Besides, the English ofteui took turn and turn about with the fork, which the Breton could not do with, his wife ‘and kids. The farmers don’t quite know what to think about, it. Anyhow, the English were dean and didn’t make hay with the potatoes and didn’t jabber Welsh at you, which was worth a lot. So that’s ’■the end of round ono in the Jersey potato d laying competition, but the people in St. Malo sing ‘God Save the King’ Jess than ever if possible.”