WRECKED FARM LANDS

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 190, 7 May 1919, Page 8

WRECKED FARM LANDS

THE DEVASTATED LANDS OF FRANCE

A NEW ZEALANDER'S • IMPRESSIONS, The problem presented by the devastated areas of Franco and Belgium has interested many New Zealand farmers among the members of the Expeditionary Force. Some writers on this subject have assumed that certain districts formerly occupied by prosperous communities have been destroyed for agricultural purposes and cannot be reoccupied. A returned New Zealauder who had opportunities to examine many of the battlefields told a Dominion reporter yesterday that lie believed the" ruin wrought by the war, from, the point of view of the farmers, had been exaggerated. "It may seem strange to talk of exaggeration in reference to those war-blasted countrysides," he said.- "Wide areas of fertile land have been converted into scenes of stark ruin. Villages and towns liavo been wiped off the map, roads and familiar landmarks have disappeared, and the soil has been torn and tossed by millions of shells. Bodies are buried everywhere, the watercourses have been blocked and diverted, and tho wreckage of war includes hundreds of thousands of unexploded shells, bombs and cartridges, ready to be exploded by plough or spade. But in ,spite of everything, I believe that restoration will be more rapid and more conjplete than we have been told to expect.

"The French are not wasting time, and they aro not despairing of ■ the agricultural future of the wrecked districts. I saw something of the efforts they' are making to get the farmers and peasants: back on the land, and I read a good deal of the plans the French Government have adopted. Certain areas will be reserved in perpetuity. These areas will include cemeteries and certain places made sacred by great fights. There aro othej areas where the resumption of cultivation seems to be impossible for tho present, and there the French will attempt afforestation. Tho meceration of the soil, involving the burying of most of the surfaoe humus, will not prevont the planting of trees, and under some conditions iti may be an actual advantage, "lie use of dynamite to shatter the subsoil preparatory to the planting of trees was a recognised Dractice among experienced orchardists before the war. "A single season will make nn enormous difference in the appearance of tho battle grounds. That was proved in 1918, when vegetation had begun to appear on ground that had been converted into a veritable abomination of desolation during tho fighting of 1916 and 1917. I ■ saw grass and even meadow flowers appearing in what would have appeared the most unlikely situations a year earlier. The French peasants were working m some of the old oattle grounds in 1918, and though. they wero at a. very great disadvantage, ( owing to the a'bsonce of the able-bodied men of military age, they were getting crops. Of course, they cultivated the most, likely-looking places ■first, and I understand that the, army authorities imposed many restrictions. "Drainage will be tho biggest problom in some of the wrecked districts. The pound is low-lying, and tho natural streams are slow-moving, I had experience of drainage operations in the South Island before I went to the war, and I was puzzled to see how some parts of tho shell-pocked farm lands in France could be prevented from becoming swamps, except at almost prohibitive qost. The natural contour of tho country, that Is, the contour established by the erosion of thousands of years, has been changed. Instead of gentle slopes, from which £lib water would run •jwiiy. there is to bo seen.'\torn ground pitted with shell-holes. The larger shellholes tend to become pondß, and after much rain tho whole area becomes a morass. Gullies and ridges have 'been wiped out. streams liavo been blocked, and irrigation canals have been destroyed. The mud that made things so difficult and unpleasant in tho Somrno area was due to the destruction of natural drainage. I was told that the French Government's exports will put trees on some of this land, and leave nature to' work for a generation before tho land is cultivated again. "The amount of land to ho withdrawn from cultiyation permanently or for a long time is large. . But it will not amount io more than a fraction of the total area covered by the battlegrounds, and I believe that in portions of the devastated areas as will see scientific farming of a very valuable kind established quickly. The farmers will have Government assistance, and they will bo compelled by the circumstances' to use machinery to a large extant. The clearing of oxplosivos from tho ground is to bo the work of a special organisalion, composed chiefly of soldiors, and it is stated that the work can be done thoroughly." '