Weekly independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 1887-1914, 1898-03-11

Fields q Thousand Years Oid-hor.
Theac Linda Mere Worried.

SOhlc very COluptNSHN NAA1Sis t'SHN
ened by the disproportion between the
wheat grown in England and the guam
tity needed for our daily bread, have
recently urged the establishment OF
public granaries for use in time of war.
The only wonder is that the figures
which impress them have not made
more impression on the public. But
while hundreds of thousands of acres OF
good wheat land lie uncultivated in
England, the proposal TO buy and hoard
foreign corn is rather too previous. Our
best public grararics are the whea;
fields of old England, which have fallen
into partial ruin and premature decay.
The wheat fields of England have two
special claims to consideration, based
on their merits. and apart from senti.
ment, though we have lately begun &c
appreherd that national sentiment IN
great concerns may be as valuable ms
public spirit in small ones. But the fact
remains that the wheat fields of Eng.
land are the oldest national industries
in this country and the most productive
in the world.
\ wheat field 4 thousand years old
is quite n common sight in this coun-
try. OF course IL has not grown a crop
of corn every year in the ten centuries,
but during that long sequence of ages,
in the fixed and abiding order of his
ancient country, that particular area
OF land has been cultivated with the
production of wheat as its main object.
and il has remained rs part of the Eng
l:sh granary from the days of Edward
the Confcssor until those of Victoria.
Many of the wheat fields are far more
ancient than this. hut the record OF
Doomsday Book is q practical voucher
for n period OF 1.COO years. The Gus
tom of the Saxon ]cultivators and the
evidence Of local names are proof Of n
still greater antiquity of cultivation on
some Of the best corn land; and beyond
the Gays of the SaNons lie the last two
centuries OF Roman occupation. when
England was the great wheat-Crowing
country of the west. and supplied the
population of Rome with daily bread.
Perhaps the most interesting feature
Of our ancestral corn lands is the small
degree in which their appearance can
have changed in course of ten or twelve
centuries. Their area is much greater
than in the old times, when villages
were separated by wide woodlands, and
only grouped ard contiguous in nat
urally open country. The early Saxon
times were not days in which men cared
TO lay field TO field. There was plenty
of ground available, and of this the
villagers cultivated and sowcd with
corn as much as thev needed for their
years supply.
The fiat. rich plain lies adjacent to n
row of old Saxon settlements under
the Downs, which are seen beyond the
plain. h men in each village went gu:
with their horses and plowed, sowed
and harvested n long narrow strip,
starting from the village or town. This
strip they called the Town Furlonr,"
and TO this day the 1.O0O-year-old wheat
field is called "Tun Furluu." As they
had no turnips or bectroot, and nc
great quantity of hay. they could keer
few cattle and had little manure. Con.
scqucnily they had to leave their
Town Furlong" fallow for three wears
TO recover itself after the corn was
reaPed. They plowed and sowed the
/, strip next To ii In the following wear
( and after that cultivated n third. re-
turning in III" fourth year TO the orig
; inal wheat fe \ "0ue-third wheat and
. two-thirds weeds" was the Anplo-SaXon
! notion of hI"h farming.
: The nest change in the appearance OF
I this smiling plain was caused by pri-
Z vate ownership. The common fields
were broken up into an infinite num-
Der OF patches, marked by low banks
or boundary stones. and during several
centuries each peasant rcaped his little
patches Tor his private store. In the
natural process by which these nassed
. into fewer hands the subdivision into
minute portions still held good; and IL
was not until the great Enclosures OF the
emu OF the last century, n process which
was continued by obtaining special acts
/ oil parliament well into the last reign
mat their holdings were joined together
ana the patchwork system banished
from our most ancient and most fertile
lands These then became the broad
acres, so justly famous, which have
held their " in the competition TO
supply our daily bread after more re-
cent additions to our wheat lands have
relnpscd TO weeds and thistlcs.
Their prOductivcrCss Is astonIsbJ,,
From 30 to 10 bushels OF whcot n, go
is the common yield Of our English
corniiclds. This natural fertility ;s
- 'i'N'"i hpIIldiCeS which hnye
grown up round the ancient fields from
century TO century.
Every acre has It's c~orrc.pond;p,
share Of fixed capital for its profitable
working. Special cottages for the
homes OF the cultivntors, barns md
buildings for crop and implements,
stables for the horses. yards for The
cattle and folds for the sheep, which |
play their part in the chemistry OF mod. !
ern farming; good roads so made ns IN
DC accessible. IL possible. from every
meiu' ana a network of railways 10 bring
,ne Mn'at 10 the %centcrs Of great cities
divided only by n few hours iournn,.
From the fields and from each otbor
are all part Of the great and costly
equipment Of the English corpfcIds-1
London Country Life.
lney were telling stories with n