The last straw
Sir: I’ve always considered that The Spectator’s otherwise peerless dissertations are let down by a bewildering ignorance of the countryside, but hitherto thought that this was occasionally redeemed by Charles Moore. Unfortunately his most recent column (The Spectator’s Notes, 14 June) displays his ignorance. His assertion that big bales of straw are made into silage will have elicited snorts of ridicule from backwoodsmen up and down the land. And far from straw being more scarce ‘than at any time in British history’, the exact opposite is the case this year, as farmers have tried to put every acre into cereals to meet the world’s huge demand, partly driven by the biofuels industry. However, he may, unwittingly, be right in future as the exorbitant cost of fertilisers will cause many arable farmers to plough their straw back into the ground to help feed the following crop, which in turn could poleaxe the livestock industry, and the strawberry beds.
Jamie Blackett
Dumfries, Dumfries and Galloway
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