Problems of Wealden FarmingAuthor(s): Brian M. ShortSource: Area, Vol. 6, No. 4 (1974), pp. 314-316Published by: The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers)Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20000907 .

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314 Nonresponse in postal questionnaire surveys

11. Stimson, R. J. and Ampt, E. S., 1972. Mail questionnaires and the investigation of spatial behaviour: the problem of respondent and nonrespondent differences, Australian Geog rapher, 12, 51-4.

12. For example, Lehman, op. cit., and Adams, S., 1953. Trends in the occupational origins of physicians, American Sociological-Review, 18, 404-9.

13. Lydall, H. F., 1955. British Incomes and Savings, Univ. of Oxford, Institute of Statistics, Monograph No. 5.

14. Jones, H. R., 1965. A study of rural migration in central Wales, Trans. Inst. Br. Geogr., 37, 31-45, Ref. p. 33.

15. Kish, op. cit., p. 535. 16. Hall, J. and Jones, D. C., 1950. Social grading and occupations, British Journal of Sociology,

1, 31-55. 17. The three nonparametric techniques used were the Contingency x2 test, the Kolmogorov

Smirnov two-sample test, and the Mann-Whitney 'U' test. Full details are given in Siegel, S., 1956. Nonparametric statistics for the behavioural Sciences, McGraw-Hill.

18. Siegel, op. cit., pp. 127-36.

Problems of Wealden farming

Report of a conference on Wealden farming held in February 1974 at Ardingly, and organized jointly by the Ministry of Agriculture, the Guildford division of ADAS, and the South of England Agricultural Society. From five speakers and a forum several themes are extracted which relate to the modern problems of farming in a relatively difficult physical environment.

In the middle of the 19th century Wealden farms were described as small, ill-drained and half-cultivated; inadequately stocked, and with too much woodland; and with the yearly tenants unskilful and unheeding of innovation.1 A French traveller, Lavergne, compared the area with one of his own country's second-rate provinces, with farmers 'Men without capital, and as ignorant as they are poor '.2

Today the inter-relationship between farming practice and the physical environment of the Weald still gives rise to anxiety over the comparative profitability of the region compared with other more favoured locations in the south-east. Three farmers (Messrs Harrison, Randle and Smith), one farm economist (J. Nix), and a soil scientist (W. Dermott) spoke to this general theme before an audience of 150 farmers and agri cultural advisers. It proved a lively gathering, with the three farmers taking on the roles of hero, and John Nix his (I suspect) accustomed role of villain. A main theme to emerge from the conference was the maintenance of an acceptable level of income in the face of definite physical (and thus financial) disadvantages: poorer soils; a

marked relief; small irregular fields surrounded by large shaws are reflected in problems of low yields; the achievement of 'timeliness '; soil poaching by stock; and a long in-wintering period. One farmer, with just 33 ha, put the options open to him as lying between intensive dairying to obtain an adequate' life style' or land use catering more for amenity and recreation-such as a caravan crop.

Closely related to this income problem was a second theme to emerge-the trend to intensification, and in particular the optimum levels to attain without soil damage.

Here there were some differences of opinion among the panelists, skilfully exploited by the audience to probe the differences between soil scientist and economist. Nix (Wye College) doubted the ability of farmers to go beyond 1.2 forage acres (0.53 ha) per cow without lowering gross margins and incurring the risk of soil poaching. Dermott (Science specialist, ADAS) advocated a reasonable amount of intensification

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Problems of Wealden farming 315

however, with judicious use of nitrogenous fertilizer, since he saw this as the key to the problems faced by small farms in the Weald. But on some farms there is the danger now of an excessive build-up of nutrients, and a nutrient input-output exercise for individual holdings could prove interesting. The farmer of 33 ha, David Smith from

Etchingham, stocks at 0O8 acres (035 ha) per cow, and the greater proportion of dung helps considerably to offset the present high cost of nitrogenous fertilizer.

Partly the answer in the Weald would be a greater reconciliation of land use, inten sity, and soil type. However the last is extremely variable. In 1625 Gervase Markham's 'hillish and sliding ' Weald contained ' marle cope ground', 'haisell mould ' and two

varieties of ' sandy mould', but no locations were given.3 Today there is still no soil map for the area, despite the confident assertions of Sir Daniel Hall to the Tunbridge Wells Farmers Club in 1900.4 Defective drainage is common and combines with a

silty topsoil to give a poor crumb structure. Surface capping is a problem, particularly when the soil organic content is low following arable cropping, and gully erosion is still very frequent. Occasionally the topsoil collapses completely. With no Ministry soil map forthcoming, many decisions on drainage are still being made on the basis of soil maps prepared privately by the late Basil Furneaux manyyears ago. Mole plough ing is difficult in these variable soils but subsoiling has encouraged increased yields, as have the increased amounts of lime, dung and artificial fertilizers. At least one farmer present proclaimed that there were ' more bad farmers than bad land about ', and farming to the weather is still vital in the Weald, where the economic pressures inducing land use uniformity must be carefully balanced by the recognition of environmental diversity.

The maintenance of living standards in a less favoured farming environment at a time of escalating costs raised another major theme-the importance of the quality of management and labour force. One farmer calculated an increase in labour costs of 50% over 1973, bringing his workers very close to the wages of their industrial counterparts. Possibly the remaining financial discrepancy could be erased by the provision of improved accommodation, and he was accordingly modernizing old cottages on his land. To promote further incentives a five day week was advantageous, particularly for cowmen since ' intelligent, responsible, well-trained men ' would be able to produce dairy cattle to equal any from Europe. For the resource managers themselves, there still seems little alternative to dairying to maximize environmental potential. Jim Harrison, farming over 400 ha of heavy clay at Rudgewick, saw dairying as 'the most profitable vehicle for turning grass into money', and it is still certainly the mainstay of the small farmer. The importance of livestock to the area is enhanced since it places relatively greater emphasis on management than on the environment, and so the enterprise choice is normally made from a quite narrow selection. However

Nix showed how numbers of dairy cattle have fallen in both High and Low Weald since 1962, compared with increases in cereals, beef cattle (particularly single suckling beef), and sheep. Labour problems, costs of concentrates, and building costs have all halted the former trend to larger dairying units; and it will now be interesting to watch the effect of the favourable 1974 price review for milk on the very real decline in dairying that has been taking place in the Weald over the winter of 1973/4. Perhaps recent increases in transport costs will also enhance any comparative natural advantage that this region possesses for the production of milk.

The inability to attract labour is being counterbalanced on many Wealden farms by extended uses of machinery. Loaders, hedgetrimmers, silos and much other expensive equipment is used by Jim Harrison to ensure timeliness-regarded by many as the essence of Wealden (or any other) farming, However, increased mechanization brings problems to this region, as it has to other farming areas. Dermott, generally opti mistic about Wealden farming, nevertheless pointed out the danger of ' plough pan' formation with the compaction of silty soils under the weight of machinery. A wet soil is endangered particularly where wheel slip is liable to occur. Again therefore,

management skill is emphasized, for as well as fitting into the economic system the

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316 Problems of Wealden farming

machinery must also fit into the farm's ecological system. Intensive cereal growing was not bad in itself-only when associated with a minimal labour force and liberal mechanization and with the need to work land which is wet. The optimal pattern, indicated by Dermott, and demonstrated by George Randle at Fletching, is rotation grassland in three or four year leys. Free draining brickearths (Ladum series) were converted at Fletching from permanent grassland for dairying, so typical of the early 20th century Weald, to the cereal/grassland integration typical of the postwar period.

One further theme was the future of farming in the region. Nix found the forecasting included in his remit an almost impossible task, owing to the international scale of the variables governing prices. Present cereal prices could collapse; the EEC market for beef was almost saturated; the enthusiasm for dairying was currently waning; and it could be that sheep will repay investment, since initial costs were lower while prices

were good in the EEC, with demand increasing at a time when New Zealand imports were dropping. Other speakers pointed out the benefits of reduced cultivations (less stiff subsoil clay will be brought to the surface), while direct drilling techniques will be beneficial for kale and reseeding grass on the better-drained soils. They will be less beneficial, once again, for continuous corn cropping.

Awareness of the possibilities of soil damage must be combined in the Weald with the steady achievement of timeliness and good management in the future. If the size and participation of the Ardingly audience is a guide to the future, then perhaps it will be at last possible to refute the disenchanted Dr Burton who wrote in 1751 of the Wealden farmer:

' . and surely we cannot wonder if the rust, contracted in this muddy soil, should clog the energy of the mind itself'.5

Brian M. Short University of Sussex

References 1. Caird, J., 1852. English Agriculture in 1850-51. London, 126-7. 2. de Lavergne, L., 1855. The rural economy of England, Scotland and Ireland. Edinburgh, 203. 3. Markham, G., 1625. The inrichment of the Weald of Kent. London, 9. 4. East Grinstead Express, 9 Mar. 1900, 3. 5. Burton, Dr J., 1751. A traveller's reveries or journey through Surrey and Sussex (B.M.

Add. MS. 11571).

Register of weather stations Throughout the United Kingdom there are a large number of 'weather stations, maintained by schools and colleges, enthusiasts and research organisations, which, for many reasons, fall outside the Meteorological Office network. Reading interval, type of instruments employed, and site often exclude them from lists of climatological stations whose characteristics conform to a stipulated standard. These have great potential value in providing at least some form of climatological record for areas which appear as vacua in the distribution of standardized climatological stations.

Interest in determining local climates ranges from the school project to more sophisticated research programmes and it would be useful if there were a register of non-standard weather stations. We are, therefore, initiating a survey of such sources of information with a view to producing an annual register. Such a register would contain details of instruments, reading schedule and exact siting characteristics of weather stations, ranging from an isolated Stevenson screen to more sophisticated stations.

We should be grateful if anybody wishing to record the presence of their weather station would contact Dr S. J. Harrison at the Department of Geography, Portsmouth Polytechnic, Lion Terrace, Portsmouth PO1 3HE.

S. J. Harrison

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