• Rustic Wisdom
A landworker new to the particular district has come upon an eloquent example of what has been called " the tyranny of the chain." Most of our land measurements, as well as our cricket pitches, depend on the chain. An acre, of course, is one chain by ten chains, and rustic workers seem to think automatically in chains. The example in question is this. The Buckinghamshire labourer was asked by the new ploughman what was the usual breadth of the " land " in the district, that is what width was used for the return of the plough. Thirty yards is a popular breadth with tractor-drivers. He replied that they usually did 22 yards as 44 was too much. He seemed unable to envisage any measurement that had no chain in it, and he was a foreman. An old -labourer in the same district uttered a characteristic piece of rural philosophy. He said, " If you want to know what sort of a woman a woman is, you needn't go asking anyone ; and if you want to know what sort of a man a man is, you needn't go asking anyone. If you go into a woman's kitchen, you know what sort of a woman she is ; and if you go into a man's garden, you know what sort of a man he is." , The maxim was evoked by the spectacle of many weeds on a garden path. How many of us in war-time would fail to pass this test!
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