Show br british ibish city people moved to country countr ato to escape robot bombs assist in harvest of bumper crops joke Is on hitler As he unwittingly ZD aids food program in whatever insane plans W were ere behind the nazi robot born bombing in ing certainly helping the english farmer was not one of them yet that is what has happened As the harvest season of 1944 approached it seemed certain that there would be an acute shortage of farm laborers in other years the army had been able to assist with the harvest but the army is now busy in france and elsewhere there are few young men left in england the land army has helped all through the war years but this year it was already fully employed the situation looked pretty bad with the richest harvest harve I 1 since the war and not enough help to bring it to in then alon along g ca came te the m robot i bomb or doodlebug ug striking inking at london and the surrounding counties the doodlebug does not at have the penetrating qualities of earlier blitz bombs but it has a blast effect that that covers a lot more territory during attacks houses are damaged at the rate of an hour so the evacuation of land london was besun begun all oer mer again one in million 1 I I 1 women children and older men h have a e already eady left the city and the second million has started where are they going gompf straight to the farms where they are helping to rea reap P the wheat gather the corn flax and other crops E is an old story to most of these people they are the ones one who left during the blitz attacks of 1940 4 0 and 41 and who returned to 19 their heir homes in 1942 and 43 this time many of them do not at have homes to which to return even with the crews of plasterers plumbers tileta etc who follow along after an attack a ft ack I 1 to a make first fired aid repairs the great majority of homes are beyond repair it is not net surprising then that many former townspeople plan to stay on an farms after the war ar intend to stay on an farm far in fact fa et ever since am the war began be gm quite a number of people have been going on an farms far with the intention mt n or of staying staging they spend a period of apprenticeship with a farmer fin first and usually make good if d farmers Is e ze enclar even before the war the motor bus b had fairly revolutionized I 1 farm life and took away some of its terrors for townspeople there have never been many automobiles in england because of their high cost cast and none in farming communities com an bicycles bicycle have always been the chief means of transportation the british equivalent to the american county fair is the we walkover 2 an annual III fall event because shorter of the shorter distances distance in england eng ai nd the farmers go in groups from one farm to another comparing crops and produce they gather for tea I 1 in the afternoon and duse discuss the methods of cultivation and argue 0 er breeds of c cattle at t le a etc t c there is quite a bit of interest i ert in different types of fertilizer and many have been tried the farms are as a rule much smaller than those these in the U S in fact all distances to in england huni are shorter than in thi this a emm country try a since the whole of britain is about as large as illinois and indiana put together the english people are in good spirits notwithstanding the dread ful bombings and are I 1 looking forward to enjoying the fruits of peace oddly enough the farm animals around london were more upset than the people the doodlebugs doodle bugs often fall or are shot down over open men country in the counties of kent S sussex us s e x essex and middlesex all on n t the h e c harnel channel coast the cows particularly ticul arly were upset by the crazy contraption and didn dian t produce as well as they had however it didas dian didn t take long for them to become ad lusted as anin animals nals especially COTAS cos usually do and they are now up to their previous records record s the way city people have hav e adapted themselves to farm life is remark able town girls who had never has been near a farm before are now doing dairy war work k with a zest they are happy and I 1 took ock wonderful they are a housed m brick bric k bu buildings iding s of semi permanent natu nature r where they eat in communal dining rooms that are nicely mealy furnished i more machinery in use there has been bee a decided in at crease j in the tha ul use of 11 lot farm machinery since the a outbreak t be e ak of war today england is the most highly mech making a V tor far victory symbol with his pitchfork george casely an english farmer defies deale hitler and his he bombs he think he be ran can at starve it us out said george who a operates p aerates a 50 acre e dairy daily far farm in devon devo anizel anz d farming country in fit europe pe th the ing big tractor works that had con templates tem plated closing down early in 1939 were given a contract by the government to produce all the tractors they could farm machinery was also shipped from canada australia and the united unite d states in n 0 order to make the he t best use of oa available job a m machinery ach mery plowing g contractors c were helped to extend their operations and ad farmers were asked to help ea each h other in some cour coun ties implement depots where a I 1 farmer r m e could u d hire e a an n implement 1 e m e n t fo for r lin gair a fe few w sh shillings fl a d day a yawp were r e s set e t u up p there has been a remar remarkable k big increase in the actual number of machinery of different types employed the number of tractors has bout about tripled cultivating instruments have increased creased about two and a half tons times the it prewar level harvesting machinery ch inary however has not shown a comparable increase but at the a introduction it of improved types such as the combined harvester thresher thresh a r together with its greater u use se ver over longer hours per day and for far longer periods have helped far farm wages have almost doubled at since nee the war and it is hoped to keep a considerable part of the increase a after the we war this is important because tenant farming in england is widespread most of the farmers do n not own the land they aaret work they are furnished homes here with garden plots g lots as a part of their wages and d usually live on an one I 1 farm mo all 11 their lives th the a wages are reached by agreement between the th a national 1 farmers union and the agricultural farm laborers union britain feeding self now before the war britain was only 40 per cent self sufficient in food and imported 8 million tons of animal ammal feed annually perhaps this was the basis for hitter hitler a decision W 4 1 t 19 57 f ra va V A zw tractors many of them from i grasslands as the british determine their own food as possible at the on isles produced less than 40 per cei raising 70 per cent not to invade england it looked easier to bomb and starve the country into submission but while the bombs were dr dropping op in london and the seacoast coast towns the british farmers were busy brav p plowing lzean g up the grasslands in 1939 th there were ers 19 T million illion aar acres of these deserf these grasslands and seven in million n ri have now been brought brough t under cultivation this is a against ge two million acres tea of grassland plowed up in orld world war I 1 today be britain I 1 thim is raising more than 70 per cent of its food the general policy governing agricultural production is laid down by the cabinet and the mo minister of ag g ri culture is responsible a for carrying out the government a plans the execution of these plans is in t the he hands of war agricultural executive ti v committees who in turn appoint district committees of local farmers farmers organizations land owners and agricultural workers all have their share in shaping the plans of vie the go government v eminent for the ministry of agriculture cu at Is consults regularly wa with th the nat national onal former farmers union a the workers worker unions and the central lers Lando landowners association before lefore the outbreak of 1 war 1 in 1939 the tha minister mini ter of agriculture had calls called d for an increase in the amount of land under the plow in the spring of 1939 a subsidy of two pounds sterling 8 11 art an acre was granted for the up of seven year grassland and bringing it into cleanliness and fertility and immediately immedi di tely after r war broke out each farmer was asked to plow up roughly 10 per cent of it his ar unplowed plowed land further financial grants are now new made in order to encourage the pr production d u cum of certain crops and to ih discourage the production of others other payments of four pounds 16 per acre are made on crops of rye and wheat harvested and ten pounds pound 40 per acre on potatoes the farm so survey ey H however i wever much of the land has had h ad to be reclaimed to offset I 1 losses sea of land to military and industrial use therefore it was extremely important that the best possible use be made of each farm acre and in 0 1941 the farm survey was initiated this survey consisted of 1 I 1 I 1 I a farm record for each farm containing conr information under unde r the follow lovag ing heads conditions cond j time of tenure and ana occupation natural state of the farm including its fertility the adequacy of its equipment the degree of infestation with weeds or pests the adequacy y of water and electr electricity supplies the management condition of the farm and its wartime a PI plowing owin g up record the information on th the management g em condition a of the t rade farm fam is s burne summarized in a the grading g of the th e farm as A well farmed B moderately farmed and C badly farmed 2 the complete comple t a 1941 june 4 census so r return of the farm including all the usual statistics statistic s biln of rop crop acreage and live stock nam numbers together with supplementary information asked espa esp especially a 11 ay iy for farm survey purposes poses 0 on lin length affa of occupation and it rent of the farm 3 A plan of the farm showing its boundaries and the fields contained in it on six inch or 12 men inch scale the agricultural executive committees co in have the right of entry on an all farms and the power which it has not been necessary to use often to remove inefficient farmers they can compel farmers to follow their directions direction and have the power to take over badly farmed land with the consent of the minister of agriculture they may then rent una this land to suitable tenants or farm and improve it themselves the land taken over 1 is a acquired at v value aloe when possession p session s taken take and within five years after the war aar it must be offered back to the original owner at a price aprice determined by agreement or arbitration if the minister of agriculture believes the land will be properly managed and cultivated today a trip through the english countryside is a refreshing experience wheat t acreage has increased e united states rip up the english iby set to work to raise rais s as much a of f break of the war in 1939 the british I 1 of their food by 1944 they were from a million acres in 1939 to 3 in 1944 potato acreage we was in 1939 and is now 1400 acres milk brodu production tion has increased in con consumption total from million gallons in the year ending march 1939 to I 1 billion 40 mill million on gallons in the year ending march 1944 at after t er two lessons in one me generation the british farmer is determined that the land must not go out of cultivation again whether his desire will b be re realized lazed or whether britain will r return tr n to the policy of importing I 1 food ad as a balance to man manufactured goods exported is one of i the problems problem of ef peace P perhaps the two can be correlated or related with the increased use of farm products for manufacturing purposes I 1 in any event the farmers of england have joined hands with all the farmers of the allied nations to show that this most peaceful of occupations can become a mighty implement of war |