COUNTRY LIFE
A visit to the limestone cliffs enables me to overlook most of the country round about. The fields are heavy and dead at the moment, but soon work will begin again. Tractors will be out, buzzing tip and down and changing the shade from fawn to brown as the ploughing is finished. Looking at so many small fields, one may think that there is something uneconomic in farming here. Four five-acre plots would surely make one workable stretch with less time lost in turning and better use of modern equipment. Would it be wise to rearrange a system of cultivation that has operated so long ? In this country of little round hills, criss-crossed with old hedges, separated by gullies and streams, I think not. The little fields are as individual in character as their owners, and here survival has often depended on individuality. A man took a chance with a small field of carrots, or ran sheep on his grass, while his neighbour tried some other expedient in his little paddocks. If the small fields became one large strip, the cutting of hedges and trees might result in no great improvement in the balance- sheet and severely affect drainage, crop and stock.
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