Count ry Life
PLOUGHING goes on while conditions on particular fields are suitable, although a few days of rain bring all to a standstill for as long again. While the wind blows and the rain keeps off, the land on well-drained slopes takes the plough and progress is rapid. Just when it looks as though the whole field will be turned before new year, rain comes again and the hill drains gush, the ditches fill and all the streams have colour in them. When ditches rise and the lower land is bogged, the escape of water from what is normally fairly dry ground becomes such a slow process that cultivation is given up. A man cannot turn a leaden field. The best tractor made will dig itself in when there is water on the top, and there is nothing to do but wait. Fortunately the waiting days are the short days and while the land is unfit for the plough there is time for threshing out a stack, hand- ling the swedes and spreading greenstuff for wintering beasts. The farms round about are not all in the same stage of progress. It would be a strange thing if they were at this time of year, because we have a variety of hills and hollows, well-drained and other- wise, but by sowing time there will be little to choose between any of them. There is a time for haste and a time for a leisurely pace. Just now the pace is slowing every- where.
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