30 JANUARY 1932, Page 13

A PIONEER CODN'TIC.

The scene of Farniff's Glory is Wiltshire ; and it may be worth while to point out that the county, always typical, is at present the battle-ground of all the rival systems. In Wiltshire Mr. Hosier invented and first practised his open-air " bails " and milking system. In Wiltshire is to be found one of the best examples of the very newest mechanization systems for growing this condemned crop of wheat. In Wiltshire is the most lamentable picture of prairie farming that ever I saw ; involving the destruction or mouldering of farm buildings and of hedges, the conversion of farm houses into dwelling houses for aliens, the collapse of a whole village, including the church, the abolition of the agricultural labourer, the substitution of foul and weedy grass for plough- land. And the grim confession must be made that probably the prairie fanning shows the best balance-sheet. Once the whole community reserved their admiration for the men who " did well by the land." To-day in certain areas, the sur- vivalists are those who do the land so badly that it ceases to be worth £5 an acre freehold. Mr. Street's father in the days of Partner's Glory employed five men or so to the hundred acres. In the same county to-day one non-resident man with a horse suffices for a great many hundred acres.

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