22 JUNE 1929, Page 15

Country Lift

A CORNISH Vlsrr.

It is a real treat to anyone who has been surrounded by the depression in farming in the East and Midlands of England to visit the South-West. A great many farmers, small and large, are doing well and, more than this, the whole rural community is doing well, especially the agricultural labourer. It would, I think, be true to say that no mere labourer on the land in the :world is faring much better in the essentials of a healthy life than some of the Cornish rural workers ; and I say this without forgetting that I have seen sheep-shearers in New South Wales doing piece-work at £4 a day, and sugar-cane cutters in Queensland earning 25s. a day. Such sums or anything approaching them are not earned in Cornwall, but- if fixity of the tenure of their work and cost of living be included the labourers are to be envied even in- relation to these high wage-earners. The crops of Cornwall are legion, including broccoli for export as all the world now knows. There is also, as few know, a considerable export of crayfish 1 But recent prosperity has accompanied "straight farming," espeeiilly of sheep and dairy cattle.