Edition Bobbett1. Texts by Elizabeth F. Bobbett: 1.1.3. Correspondence, Letters to newspapers

1940 Elizabeth Bobbett: Letter to the Wicklow People, 10.02.1940

Only A Day’s Outing

As I was one of the party of women who took part in a parade during the course of Baltinglass Ploughing Match on 31st January, the parade being staged as a protest against the present uneconomic conditions of farming, I could not help seeing the competitors at work, as some of the sets were arranged near the road ditch, and the conduct that was permitted was unbelievable. What are ploughing matches for? I should say they are only a day’s outing for some of the locals and an advertisement for the implement manufacturers, as these people can afford to advertise their goods. It is certainly not to help the farmer. More practical help this year would be for those manufacturers to give free seeds to a certain number of farmers in a district where a ploughing match is usually held, but they would want to also give the farmer a guarantee from the Ministers concerned, that his crop would not be seized for rates or annuities, so that the farmer could look with some hope to his harvest, and so increase the food production of the nation. With regard to the committees that promote ploughing matches, only a very small percentage of these committees are farmers, the majority being in some way more or less in receipt of Government pay, such as school teachers, pensioners, county council workers and politicians.