6 SEPTEMBER 1940, Page 11

Late Ploughs Seldom has the distinction between Northern and Southern

England been more strongly pronounced. The corn has been cut and carried in the South, and, more than this, a very large amount of ground has been ploughed. The ploughs have been working here and there by searchlight, and in many fields the hum of the tractor answers the hum of night-flying aeroplanes. A certain number of potatoes have been dug in response to the rather premature withering of the haulms in our torrid and dusty weather. The North has had different weather, and rain, for which the South is thirsty, is still undesired. All Southern gardeners want rain, and farmers on the tougher soils have had to suspend ploughing on their bricklike stubbles.