26 JANUARY 1974, Page 5

Country life

Sir: Your columnist Peter Quince mentions muddy fields in his article of January 12. Whether it is a quirk of memory I know not, but I do not remember fields being as boggy as they are at present. Is this the cumulative effect of heavy equipment, artificial fertilisers, lack of humus, and a general neglect of field drains?

Alan Challoner Editor, The Armchair Naturalist and Country Gardner's Assistant, Towers Road, Paynton, Cheshire