Letters to the Editor - July 2010

I fully agree with Humphrey Phelps (April) that small farms have been “squeezed out of existence”.

I live in the house at the farm which I inherited. Sadly, although I qualified in England for the National Diploma in Dairying, the dairy farming industry changed so much that our own Jersey herd, one of the best on the island, had to be given up.

After the war when I had left school, I used to drop out of bed at 4.55am, run to whichever of our scattered fields the cows were in, and drive them to the gate. My father would be in the lane and opened the gate to lead the cows home.

It amazed me that they did not leap over other people’s hedges but I suppose they knew there was food waiting for them in the stable and that they would be relieved of their milk by the old Gascoigne machine. It had survived the war
.
Sadly the family had to give up keeping cattle. The Jersey produces milk superior to that from other breeds.

Early potatoes, the Jersey royals, are still grown. My land’s full of them at the moment and I am hoping that the market will be good enough for the chaps who use the land to be able to pay me some rent, but the prospects are not very good.

The cow stable here was in excellent condition before the war when our father was in charge; now it is rented out for storage of old furniture.

The farmhorse stable (three stalls) is now used by a chap for his own hobbies and in return he arranges for the gardener to mow the front lawn and grass all around the house.

The pigsties are in perfect condition but have not seen any pigs since we moved to the principal family farm just ten days before the liberation of the island on 9 May 1945.

Incidentally, in my later working life I enjoyed working for a local legal firm and visited many interesting old properties in our lovely countryside.

Miss Jean Arthur, St John, Jersey

With reference the article on foxgloves (May). Foxgloves are visited by bumble bees and not by honey bees. Honey bees cannot force their way into the narrow tube enough to secure the nectar.

D H Ferguson-Thomas, Llanwrda, Carmarthenshire

Referring to Fiona Godber’s article (‘The Way We Were’, June), I can report that there is an internationally famous collection of eighteenth- century maiden’s garlands housed in the Parish Church of Holy Trinity, Minsterley, Shropshire. 

The church was built in 1692 by the Thynne family of Longleat, and the seven garlands (also referred to as maiden’s crants) were placed in the church between 1736 and 1794, each being made in the form of a crown with decorative flowers and gloves made of paper, and these would have been placed on the coffins of the deceased.

 Mrs Elizabeth Morris, Minsterley

Congratulations to Robin Page (May) for bringing his logic and common sense to bear on the problem of protected species proliferation, and to you for daring to publish what must be the painful truth for some of your readers.

Wildlife protection legislation gave no thought to the need to control protected species if they proliferated to the detriment of others.

As a woodland owner it is heart­breaking for me to see ninety per cent of the hundreds of oaks I planted after the Great Storm of 1987 being disfigured and destroyed by the attack of grey squirrels, particularly as they started their attack after I had spent the first fifteen years caring for them at substantial time and expense.

When I started farming fifty years ago I was proud to have a badger sett on my farm, when none of my neighbours had one. I forbade their shooting and made a new field access when they undermined the old one. Now I have five setts on the farm and my neighbours all have others nearby.

Tuberculosis is a disease of over­crowding, both in humans and animals, and we are doing the badgers no favours by allowing them to proliferate beyond a healthy population limit.

If it is established in a sett, then the obvious solution is to clear it out and keep others away from the area to protect the next generation.

Desmond Gunner, Buxted, Sussex

Robin Page’s irritation over reports of particular groups saying that research showed that little damage had been done to the songbird and farmland bird population by predators is shared by a lot of people, including myself.

For the past eight years I have written many letters to the govern­ment and the well-known bird societies over the great increase in predators, which I contend is a major reason for the decline in many of our birds.

However, still the government and bird societies parrot the same replies and boast about their achievements. Frankly, I don’t think these people really care at all about this decline and many seem to enjoy watching the kill. Many are making money out of these predators.

On my five-acre (2 ha) holding we have up to seven buzzards flying overhead our fields and these seem to have blackbirds and thrushes for their meals, whilst the rabbits hide down their burrows.

A pair of sparrowhawks have our birds from the garden daily, and whilst they are pretty silent they show no fear even to get birds by the front door. Rook numbers have trebled here, and last year they took fourteen baby ducklings off the pool who were just one day old.

The previous year a pheasant lost her youngsters to magpies and buzzards. We even watched squirrels attacking them.

Concerning the grey squirrels, they are driving my friend up the wall. He has dispatched almost 300 squirrels here on five acres in three years and still they flood in.

Predators this year have taken our treecreepers, wrens, nuthatches, yellowhammers, red-legged partridge and our usual garden birds.

I have a pet blackbird who has worked hard these last two years feeding his young on the nest. Due to the dry weather I have left the hose running so he could get the worms out of the lawn and with many worms in his mouth he would fly into the conifer bush.

I now observe feathers of the young scattered around. So far none of our remaining birds have been successful in raising young. It’s no wonder with too many predators around.

H Woolridge, Worcestershire

National parks are still topical, the government having decided to add the South Downs to the current twelve.

Please could I tell your readers of the availability of the Speakers’ Service from the Campaign for National Parks (CNP)?

The CNP’s aims are to ensure the protection and enhancement of our national parks, and to promote understanding and quiet enjoyment of them.

Our volunteers give illustrated talks in almost any city, town or village.

Adrian Thornton, Voluntary Speaker Co-ordinator, CNP,
6-7 Barnard Mews, London
SW11 1QU; Tel 020 79244077;
Email info@cnp.org.uk;
Website www.cnp.org.uk.

The article ‘Any old iron’ (June) reminded me of the harvest times
on my father’s farm where we had a Dutch barn kept preserved by a coating of black tar.

When the stack reached the eaves of the barn and prevented the movement of air, the sun’s heat absorbed by the black colour soon raised the temperature to an unbearable level, causing everyone to sweat in torrents.

Jack Hill, St Albans

I feel I must express my pleasure on reading the poems in the April issue: ‘The Season’ by Vaughan Stone and ‘Come, Gentle Spring’ by Daniel le Fleming, not forgetting of course Charles Dickens’ contribution, a rare pleasure nowadays.

Mr J D Todd, Burnham-On-Sea

I feel I must express my pleasure on reading the poems in the April issue:

‘The Season’ by Vaughan Stone and ‘Come, Gentle Spring’ by Daniel le Fleming, not forgetting of course Charles Dickens’ contribution, a rare pleasure nowadays.

Mr J D Todd, Burnham-On-Sea

There’s something queer (old sense) about The Countryman. With any other periodical I rant and rave in my mind and that’s about as far as it goes; but let The Countryman make some minor mistake and I feel compelled to let the editor know how he has let the world down.

In my saner moments, now few and far between, I feel sorry for the editor, but this does not stop me chiding him and showing him the error of his ways.

Why do I feel this way? Perhaps because The Countryman has been
by my side most of my life, and generally commented on the world as I would wish to do myself, thereby saving me the time and trouble.

But here I am with a warm glow and I feel almost apologetic for past criticisms because I have just been educated about modern milking practices (‘Computerised cows’, May) and then I see the fabulous photo­graph of the wood spoons (‘A love of wood’, May).

That child quoted in the article who said “The wood was dead, and now it’s alive again” will go far.

So, Mr Editor: I’m sort of sorry for past criticisms but I’m not promising that my mood will last and I might be compelled to write again. So it’s up to you. Keep the standard high or watch out.

John Timbrell, by Email

The editor reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity.