Edition Bobbett1. Texts by Elizabeth F. Bobbett: 1.2.1. Published Texts, Articles in yearbooks and anthologies

1945 Elizabeth Bobbett: Is farm life dull? Why the drift from the land? Can we avert it?

On all sides we hear of Planning for the future, and many well intentioned people are planning as to how the farmers should regulate their business.1 Yet to my mind, the very often mentioned plans for the uplifting of those engaged on the land, the idea of bringing them to live in planned villages and regimenting them into community centres are just what the people on the land do not want.

I was travelling on a long distance bus about a year ago and coming near Dublin about 12 miles out, the bus waited rather a long time in a neat village which has a nice village green, the ideal village. There were two farmers in the seat before me and their conversation turned on the new idea of planning. One man said, “this is a nice little place but I would not like to live in it.” The other said, “this is the sort of life the people are planning we should live, to be closer to amenities, etc.” “It would not suit me,” said the first man, “I’d rather live at the end of the boreen than amongst a lot of houses like that, sure everyone would know everybody’s business, you’d have no privacy at all.”

Now, first of all. Is farm life dull? No. It is the most interesting life of all. I hold that next to the calling of the church, farming holds the highest place. It is a noble calling. We must remember that Agriculture is the very basis of civilised life. Agriculture is not an Industry it is Husbandry. Man with nature. In farming you are dealing with living things, working on the soil to make seeds grow, and to increase the live-stock. In short the farmers’ work is to carry on the creation of food, for without it the rest of the community would die.

Farm life is never dull. You are no sooner finished putting in one crop than you are taking out some other crop, then as soon as the harvest is saved and ready for the thresher, you are getting ready to plough again for the next year’s grain. You have all the different animals with their own interesting ways. The milking, the churning and making of butter, looking after the poultry and coaxing the young turkeys to eat. Think of the excitement in the family when one of the youngsters come running in to say the first lambs are running about the fields, or another batch of chickens are scratching in the yard. It is not so pleasant if you find them scratching up the flowerbeds. Then the joy of feeding up a good calf (that is when they are worth rearing), how you would sometimes deprive yourself of your egg for tea in order to give it to the calf to make him strong. There is no life which brings the family so much together as farming, as all the family can take an interest in it. It is the ideal family life. We can all help in the work, and we all like to get even a small share in it, and here I say the women play a big part in farm life. If an accident happens, it is to the farmers’ wife they come for help. Often a sick animal is left in her charge. She makes the gruel to dose the beast if it requires nourishment, she has the hot water ready to stupe the injured leg, etc., etc. (and very few of them have the water laid on in the farm house, rather have they to drag it from a well).

Now while farm life is never dull, it has many an anxious hour and many big disappointments. You must remember that we depend on the Will of God. No matter how efficient we may be at our work, much of it will depend on the weather as to whether our crop will be good or a failure. Farmers need a very liberal profit on all they produce, because they will always have a certain amount of loss each year. For instance, if the weather is very dry and good for saving the harvest it will not be so good for live stock, or milk production, while if it is good for live stock and milk production, (that is if it is a nice wet summer) it won’t be good for harvest. Then they have losses through accidents and unavoidable diseases which occur amongst live stock.

Just think what a loss it is to a small farmer with perhaps only two or three cows and a few young cattle, to find a cow dead or two young cattle. Think of what the loss of a horse may mean. Yes we have beautiful roads for the tourists, but if a horse breaks a leg the tourists won’t pay the farmer for it, neither will the County Council.

One night’s heavy rain or storm may destroy your harvest. All these things we accept as God’s holy will. But there are a lot of things which could be averted which would make farming a more secure occupation.

We could have secured markets for most of our produce and fixed economic prices. At present, if we produce an abundance we are faced with slump prices.

Now farming covers so many different lines of work that it is a great art and you are always learning, and I never can understand why people classify agricultural labourers as unskilled workers and pay them accordingly, whereas they should be the best paid workers in the state.

Few people realise the brains and initiative necessary to carry on farming and farm work. The horse man must study his horses and know how to manage them under difficulties, the same treatment would not work with every horse. The cow man must study his cows and sheep and pigs, he knows when they are not well, but he must also know what remedy to give them.

The farmer must study the soil and know what seeds will suit the different types of land he has, and what manures he wants for the various crops.

The drift from the Land

I suppose it is not regarded as patriotic to mention the Economic War but it leads to the drive from the land. Our prices fell so low that we could not meet the rates and rent and keep the farm working as it should be worked, so something had to go, or some one had to leave the home to go and earn elsewhere.

If two small cattle paid the half year’s rates in 1931 it would have taken six to pay the half year’s rates in the years during the economic war. Well the cows would not oblige by having twins or triplets every year to satisfy the demands of the Rate collector. So any little nest egg that was put by to give a son a start in life or to fortune a daughter was handed over to the Rent or Rate Collector. Indeed, in some parts even the last cow had to go.

Naturally the boys got disappointed with the outlook for farming and they went off to the towns in search of work, which was promptly given them. They were strong good workers coming from the land, not afraid of work. They soon earned big money, but they had turned their back on the land they once loved.

Here is a point of interest for the town reader. Every country man or girl taking on work in the town throws a town person out of employment, so one of the big problems facing us is to keep the country people on the land, as the towns population is already more than large enough to fill any city jobs for many years to come. One has only to travel through any of the new areas in Dublin to wonder what will become of half the young people growing up there, where will they find work.

Much has been written during the past two or three years on the subject of the flight from the land and the decline in marriages in rural Ireland. Indeed some writers would go so far as to say that it was selfishness on the part of the farming population, as statistics prove that in the labouring and unemployed classes the marriage rate has not been so low as amongst the farming population.

Those writers seem to forget that it is the farmers who are the largest ratepayers and they have to foot the bill for the unemployed to a large extent. To put it plainly, any labourer or unemployed person is entitled to free medical aid, free hospital treatment, and Home help assistance all of which the farmer pays through his rates.

Having read through the above, you will surely agree with me that it is economic reasons which are the cause in the decline in rural Ireland. Few farmers have come through the economic war period without being in debt to some party – be it rates, annuities, bank or shop debts, but to their credit be it noted, they refrain from taking on the responsibilities of married life.

Perhaps the people in the cities do not know what the farmers have suffered but it is an old saying, “when your hat is on your house is thatched.” The farmer suffers the mental anguish of not knowing the day when the post man will hand him a notice saying, “Take notice that if the amount £… is not paid within ten days your holding will be sold to the highest bidder.” How could any farmer take the risk of seeing his family evicted?

Can we avert it? Yes. If we take a headline from Denmark where in 1931 when the farmers were faced with bankruptcy the Government scaled down all mortgages and reduced interest rates and gave economic prices for the farmers’ produce.

More especially in Ireland is the farmers’ calling the most important because being a predominately agricultural country it is only by our agricultural exports that we can provide the wealth to exchange for the necessary imports we need. For this reason all other sections of the community should regard a prosperous agriculture as the most important for the country, it is the king-pin of national economy and therefore of business.

The present mentality of the towns people is to try and keep the farmers down, because they fear if the farmer gets a fair deal and a just price that they in the towns will have to pay higher prices for their food stuff.

They overlook the fact that with all modern advances over the past hundred years, agriculture has had to foot the bill to provide the wealth to purchase the petrol, rubber, cement, electric equipment, houses, machinery, etc., etc., to mention just a few of our everyday needs.

Now the farmers and people of rural Ireland have always been in the front rank in any fight for Irish rights, after centuries of struggle we have won our political freedom, but without Financial Freedom we can never have a prosperous Ireland.

Now some people hold that Ireland is a poor country, with that view I do not agree. The only inexhaustible source of wealth… and then only inexhaustible if rightly used… is agricultural land.

The land is like nothing else in the domain of production because under proper management the more it is made to produce the greater reserves it holds.

Some people may ask what is Financial Freedom?

The right to use the National Credit for the benefit of the people, and not as at present when it is used by the Bank of England which is a private company. If the National Credit were freed from private control then Drafts on the National Credit could replace interest-bearing Bank loans which are the mill stones around our necks at present.

Other countries have saved their farmers by this method. See what New Zealand has done.

The drift from the land can be averted by giving us security in our agricultural industry with remunerative prices which will enable us to pay a decent wage to our workers, also enable us to employ sufficient workers and give more leisure to the farmers’ family who at present have to slave from daylight to dark. Insecurity has been the cause for many people not settling down on the land.

In conclusion, I would like to refer to our Social life. It is what we make it. We enjoy the local concerts and dramatic plays acted by our local people, it brings us together, then we have the hurling club for the men and the camogie club for the girls, and some like to have a tennis club, our courts may not be up to Fitzwilliam standard, but perhaps we get more fun out of them. But best of all in the winter time we like a game of cards or a dance. Of course the dance halls now have a great attraction. God be with the good old days when we could have dances in our new homes.

Then we have the coursing matches, the ploughing matches, and before the emergency we had our County Agricultural Show. Some districts have the Irish Country Womens’ Association, but the greatest boon that has come to many counties during the past years has been the branches of the Irish Farmers’ Federation. It has brought the farmers together as no other organisation has done since the days of the Land League. It has extended the hand of friendship to all farmers. It has been their guiding light.

Many people think that we want picture houses where we can go every night, we would like to see pictures now and then, but we prefer to be able to take a day off and travel to the city or town for such gaieties. We don’t want the city brought down to disturb the peaceful countryside.

1 - Signed as “Land-Girl”, in: Irish Farmers’ Federation, The Future of Agriculture in Ireland, Yearbook 1945, pp. 63-65.