I F farmers are ever sorry for themselves they have good
reason to be when land that once grew crops ceases to do so. This rarely happens through bad husbandry and only very occasionally through a change in natural conditions, but it does happen when the town spreads out and swallows another field or two. The other day I talked to a farmer who used to farm ' a fair bit of the town,' as he put it, and he was sad about his lost acres, for his best field for corn had gone and a good southern slope was growing nothing but 'a crop of chimneys.' Compensation?' he said. 'What is compensation for fields that are covered with bricks and cement? I grew good corn here up to seven years ago!' There are two sides to the picture and if the cultivation of land continues to matter, as it must, there seems to be only one place where an increasing population can be accommodated and that is on the next storey up, but will they like it any more than the farmer likes losing his land?
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