30 DECEMBER 1949, Page 17

Community Tools

A modern variant of the legendary good work of Lob-lie-by-the-fire has been recorded in Lancashire. A worker in a Preston mill, being a patriot and a gardener, was seen attempting to reclaim a bit of rough moorland with spade and fork and mattock. The slow, laborious endeavours were watched by the owner of a two-furrow plough and a Ferguson tractor ; and, taking the job in his stride, he saved the reclaimer weeks or months of time and tough labour. Here is an example of the value that might belong to any system of community ploughing, such as was reported not long since by a Surrey member of the Village Produce Association. That most beneficent and, indeed, ingenious organi- sation could not do better than by furthering such schemes.