COUNTRY LIFE
THE landscape seems to be taking on a new, utilitarian shape says an editorial in the Eastern Daily Press forwarded by a correspondent in Norfolk. In my part of the world, as 1 commented last week, the fields are old and have not been merged into each other. The agri- cultural pattern has been preserved. In East Anglia, where the terrain is flat and the soil richer, it appears that local councils are concerned about the changing face of the countryside. Copses and hedges are vanishing, and, according to the man who brings this matter to my attention, what was a shady, sheltered place is becoming a wind-swept prairie. Utility has always determined the appearance of the country. It was once well-wooded, and that may have had a little to do with cover for pheasant and fox. The modern farmer, the editorial suggests, has little use for either hedges or trees. They both occupy space he could use for crops. It is true that the farmer jealously considers every yard of a field he might put to crop, but he is not, and never can be, completely indifferent to the usefulness of trees and hedges, whether he farms in East Anglia or Cumberland. Trees and hedges provide wind- breaks, shelter corn, and hold soil on ground that would otherwise be in danger of erosion. As a nation we cannot afford to consider a hedge or a tree for its beauty if hedge or tree grow where wheat might he grown. Amenity takes second place to utility.
Previous page
