AN ENGLISH FARMER'S LIFE

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 71, 20 September 1930, Page 21

AN ENGLISH FARMER'S LIFE

"Corduroy." By Adrian Bell. London: Richard Cobden-Sanderson.

Mr. Bell lias accomplished the difficult feat, namely, given an account of practical farming and at the same time describing the beauties of the countryside as they would appear to poet and painter. Although his scene is laid in Suffolk and the time is the present, there is much in "Corduroy that should as deeply interest New Zealand readers as it will those familiar with rural England. In this country, with its electric power on the farm, milking by machinery, and general application of scientific methods of farming, popular imagination is apt to hug the idea to itself that English farming is still conducted on archaic principles or treated more of a hobby than a business. "Corduroy" should do much to show the fallaciousness of any such an idea. The book describes tho setting out of a young man from life m a Chelsea studio to a career among the turnips and whcatfields iv East Anglia. Ho arrived at the farm during a shoot, with neighbours over the farmer's property. This seemed an auspicious beginning. A pleasant social evening with early retirement followed, aud then up at cock-crow, to pack pheasants for the London market and take them to the station: and after that (for the first time) harrowing under the tutelage of a farm boy. Farm work began in earnest and atj once, and continued through the year. I But it was seasoned with many little j pleasant interludes, for. busy as. the j farmer was, time was found for hunt-1 j ing, visits to the market town,, and I social intercourse. There was no | waste of time, money, or energy on I that farm. To the New Zealand farmer life as depicted in "Corduroy" may seem, far easier than it is in this Dominion, but the farmer whom Mr. Bell describes . had a genius tor organisation and there was no job on | his farm that he could not do and would not do if necessary as well as any one of. his hands—ploughing, thatching, or "first-aid" mechanical jobs. This farmer, however, appears to have had no time to spare for long-drawn-out conferences or loquacious committee meetings. What public business he engaged in was dealt with carefully, yef quickly, and his associ-1 ates were of the same mind, lho farm work came first, and it was .without intermission; social engagements hail what odds and ends of time could be spared for them. The farm was a mixed one, but mainly roots and crops, as many in England are. "Marketing problems" and "Costs of production, with rates and taxes and other matteis with which the- New Zealand farmer is familiar, engaged the attention of this bustling Suffolk farmer from whom Mr Bell sought to learn his business. Ami business it truly was, highly expert, far from the simple leisurely occupation it appears to tho passing tourist iv his car. Ploughing, harrowing, reaping, stacking, pig-raising, haymaking thatching, all high y specialised yet interesting works and far Horn the hum-drum tasks they seem. Mr Bell describes the lite for a whole year round, and that over a period long enough for him to gam confidence in his ability to farm on his own account, and hi 3 narrative ends with installation in a place of , lua£T' The reader of "Corduroy" should be impressed by tho clear, statement of conditions of farming m England at any rate in the Eastern Counties; with the observations made by Mr. Bell, a townsman, of wild life in England; and his gift for description in a tew sine strokes of impressions made upon him by the quiet rural beauty of England.