7 DECEMBER 1951, Page 24

COUNTRY LIFE

I WATCHED a man ploughing very stiff and sodden land with a heavy tractor. A light Ferguson tractor would obviousry have been by far the better implement against packing, but like horses would have lacked drawing power. The heavier the tractor in such conditions, the more certain a hard pan to seal up the subsoil, cut off the reservoir of its minerals from the crop, clog aeration and obstruct drainage. Hence the ploughman was defeating his own ends of preparing the land to grow a good crop. , In fact, here was a speaking example, when the ideal fraction would have been a three-pair team of oxen—to us a Saxon anachronism.