Country Life
By IAN NIALL I OFTEN wonder what that very worthy country- man William Cobbett would make of the agri- cultural scene today, could he return to travel the roads and inspect the land and the health of its crops. What would he think of the binder, the combine, the iron horse? Would he not marvel at the silos, the milking machines and the deep litter shed'? But would they listen to Cobbett, burly and outspoken, at the inn now? Perhaps his approach wouldn't please, and, in any case, how could he know farming as it is without knowing about modern science? The up-to-date farmer is the fellow the old-timers called a mud-student only thirty years ago. Cobbett would, I think, have some good things to record in another volume of Rural Rides, even if he had not much to say about farming policy. It takes generations to put things in perspective. Are such excellent accounts of the agricultural scene being written today to cover the revolution that those in Cobbett's day could never have conceived pos- sible? One hopes so, even if one cannot see a Cobbett about, or hear his John Bull voice in the din of agricultural industry and the clamour over prices.
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