AGRICULTURE IN BRITAIN

Shannon News, 16 October 1925, Page 1

AGRICULTURE IN BRITAIN

A large party of South African farmers recently; jmade a tour textending over six weeks in England, the South of Scotland and Northern Ireland. Prom all points of view, it was an unqualified success. Among their privately expressed opinions the most noteworthy, from the technical point of view, Is their appreciation of the excellence of British livestock and British grassland, says the Times. But special importance attaches to the results of their observations of the farmers themselves and of the conditions under which they carry oh their work. Their unanimous verdict is that ,in spite of the bad times through which, in the majority of cases, they are passing, in spite of the heavy burden imposed upon them in the way of taxation and other financial charges, the British farmers whom they have met are possessed of a wonderful spirit of patience and perseverance. They hav e altogether failed to find in them any trace of the pessimistic views of the prospects of agriculture which thes" had been led to expect. As far as they have seen, it t is an unwarranted libel to speak of them as "grousers." Coming from an outside source, as the judgment of men fully qualified by their expert knowledge to appreciate the obstacles which argriculturists in Britain have to overcome, this estimate of their mental attitude to their work and to its future ought to have a salutary effect on their self-appoint-ed and superficially-minded critics. Nor are the conclusions at which the visitors from South Africa have arrived as to the technical standard of British farming any less reassuring After what they have seen they take home with them the conviction that those who compare it unfavourably with that of other countries are very much mistaken. The Times,adds that arrangements are being made for a return visit by a hundred British farmers of the South African Union and Rhodesia. v