Country Life
By IAN NIALL
THOSE who are engaged in agriculture can never-be satisfied over the weather because conditions never suit all the complexities of their industry. If it doesn't rain in April it may be to one man's delight that he can get on with seeding his field, but if it doesn't rain the grass stops growing, which cancels the advantage of early cultivation. Feeding at one period is balanced by the harvest at another. If it rains too much in winter, full dykes prevent the land taking the plough, and so on. We have been ex- periencing spring as those whose lives are not bound up with agriculture like to see it, but unfortunately the grass has been checked and sheep have cropped close. Fields that might be lush and green are showing the yellowing tinge, and in the village of late the lawn-mowers have fallen silent. Soft showers that only darkened the slates and laid the dust didn't penetrate the soil as much as a quarter of an inch. Until today, when the drought was broken with a good fall of rain, the most irritating remark one could make to a farmer was the stock one, 'Nice weather we're having.' Even now he doesn't think much of it, for one day's rain doesn't guarantee milk supply.
Previous page
