ENGLISH FARMING-OLD AND NEW STYLE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1371, 15 October 1886, Page 3

ENGLISH FARMING-OLD AND NEW STYLE.

The “Vagabond” thus discourses on the quertlon of farming in England “now and then”—lt ia the English farmer who verj seldom rises in the aoc al scale. They are now, as they have always been, in a dependent position. Many of them may hold much larger farms than their forefathers, who were only peasants: but they are s ill only tenants, and with a tenant’s respect for the opinions of hie landlord. There has been a great outcry of late years that the British farmer is reined. As far aa I remember, the same outcry existed ICO years ago. It is (heir landlord who is the general mouthpiece of the farmer, he himself b?ing generally scant of words, and only able to emphasise his opinions over his gin and water after the market dinner, or in vociferous applause at a meeting of the country members Still, of Is to years there has been a great change in the manner of living of the British farmer. I can remember as a schoolboy, when flying over the country in paperchases, or in holiday pedestrian tonrs around England, that in the farm houses we visited there was a remnant of the o’d style. The farmer's wife then tucked np her sleeves and made batter and cheese, and supervised the pickling of hams and bacon, and the brewing of beer. Nor were they ashamed to go out Into the hayfiold and work hard, and be of real service with the rake I could then see the rising generation. The gir s, who were sent to school, taught Shakespeare, the musical glasses, and “French of Stratford-atte-Bi w,” and who, by the ideas they imbibed, became in the social scale neither “ flesh, fowl, nor good red herring.” The sons, owing to the extension of communication, were sent to Metropolitan academies, and learnt a smartness wh’ch pleased their fathers, bat, which was not of much use to them in farming the old acres. The young yeoman wanted to ride to hounds as often as his landlord, ancl be grumbled at being deprived of the spooling on his farm. Be would run to the Derby or to Newmarket, or Doncaster, and bet heavily on all the races. Whereas, in old days, perhaps once a year at the country meeting the sporting yeomen would enjoy himself, he now goes to all the principal race meetings in England, and so, wfh the wife lulling over the piano In the drawing-room, and the husband away at the race course, the money which their fathers saved Is soon spent, and the mode of living in the fashion of the day soon causes farming to become “ unprofitable,"