20th+: October 2018

In the 1930s, before the mechanisation of farming, plough teams were a familiar sight in rural Britain.

The inter-war years were difficult times for farmers and farm workers. When the wartime controls (of the Great War) were summarily removed after 1921, workers continued to consider themselves betrayed by the government.

The Agriculture Act, depression and subsidy .

Halcyon days

WW1 governments had put in place a state regulated and subsidised system of agriculture that increased the pay of farm workers, the profits of farmers and the productivity of the land. The system continued after the war. Many tenant farmers took the opportunity of the early post-war boom to buy their farms from their landlords. The increase in Schedule tax on income from land was at a historically high level, which encouraged landowners to convert a highly taxed income into zero-tax capital gain. Nearly a quarter of agricultural land was sold by the end of 1922.

An oat shortage in 1920 meant that the high prices farmers could charge not only provided them with considerable profits, but also produced a bill of up to £15 million for the government as it subsidised the sale of oats to the public and food producers.

Repeal of the Agriculture Act

This system stayed in place until 1921, when the Agriculture Act - guaranteeing minimum wages and minimum produce prices - was repealed. The government was facing a potential £20 million subsidy bill for the agricultural sector, when other parts of the economy did not have such protection, and high food prices were not popular with a predominantly urban electorate.

The result was a rapid reduction in agricultural wages by as much as 40 per cent in one year, and the increased indebtedness of arable farmers. The removal of restrictions on Canadian grain was combined with reluctance by the government to intervene in the agricultural sector. These additional blows resulted in further falls in productivity, increased rural poverty, emigration to towns and some land lying waste, even in fertile areas such as Norfolk. Agriculture did not fully recover until WW2.

Consolidation and the return of subsidy

Minor recoveries in grain prices in the mid-1920s improved matters, but were cancelled out by the depression from 1931 onwards. Dairy farming did not suffer as badly, and some agricultural sub-sectors, such as eggs and cheese, moved to more efficient 'industrial' methods, particularly in Lancashire and Wiltshire.

The creation of marketing boards for various agricultural sub-sectors (such as milk and potatoes) in the mid 1930s helped to improve coordination, moderate prices, direct production and control imports. Also, the early 1930s saw tariffs reintroduced for a number of products such as wheat, soft fruit and potatoes, and farmers were quick to take advantage. By the late 1930s, the situation in the agricultural sector had improved from the difficulties of the early 1920s and early 1930s.

Documents:

Halcyon days .

Cabinet Conclusion 2. Agriculture Policy. 20 October 1919

Cabinet Conclusion 3. Guaranteed Minimum Price. 20 October 1919

Cabinet Conclusion 7. Credit Facilities for Agriculture. 20 October 1919

Cabinet Conclusion 9. Compulsory Powers over Cultivation of Land. 20 October 1919

Certain General Advantages of the Agricultural Policy. 20 October 1919

Cabinet Conclusion 1. Agriculture.18 May 1920

Cabinet Memorandum. Agriculture Bill. 10 August 1920

Cabinet Conclusion 2. Agriculture Bill. 16 December 1920

Repeal of the Agriculture Act .

Cabinet Conclusion 2. Agricultural Policy. 14 November 1923

Cabinet Memorandum. Agricultural Policy. 12 November 1923

Consolidation and the return of subsidy .

Cabinet Conclusion 11. Agricultural Policy. 29 March 1933

Cabinet Conclusion 9. Agricultural Policy. 6 May 1931

Cabinet Conclusion 3. Agricultural Policy. 4 June 1931

Cabinet Memorandum. Committee on Agricultural Policy. 7 March 1930

Cabinet Memorandum. Committee on Agricultural Policy. 17 March 1930

Cabinet Memorandum. Home Wheat Quota Scheme. Date 13 April 1931

Agriculture

Harvest 1938 > .
2018 British Farming > .

1943 - Holiday Ideas (Scotland) - Harvest Help Mid-8 to Mid-10 > .
British Farming - Christmas > .

British Farming >>> .

Agricultural College > .

Wartime Farm in BBC Farm - tb >> .

BBC Farms - Tudor through Wartime - tb >> .
Tractors Working On The Farm: Power On The Land - 1943 > .

Wartime herbs for pharmaceutical industry > .

WAEC - War Agricultural Executive Committees ..

During World War I and the post-war reconstruction, the agriculture and food ministries controlled their respective industries. This culminated in the Agriculture Act (1920) which provided support for farmers in the form of guaranteed prices for agricultural products and minimum wages for farm labourers. But within six months of its implementation, falling prices and a struggling economy forced the repeal of the act, which returned the country to the laissez-faire economy that had existed before 1914, when there was a free market economy with little or no government involvement.

At this time, Labour and the Conservatives were united in their anti-subsidy approach, strongly believing agricultural issues should be solved in the open market.

These sentiments – which eventually led to a free market period lasting from 1921-1931 – are reflected in the policies of today. The 1920s Labour Party opposed state support to farmers while land was privately owned – today, Labour wants to move subsidies away from wealthy landowners.

In the 1930s the Conservatives stated: “It is no longer national policy to buy all over the world in the cheapest markets”. Their ambition today is to: “make a resounding success of our world-leading food and farming industry; producing more, selling more, and exporting more of our great British food”.

However, there were some significant downsides when the Agriculture Act was repealed: agricultural wages fell by as much as 40%. Productivity fell too, rural poverty increased, small farms failed and land was abandoned through urban migration. Some described the countryside as a desolate waste.

[And, by WWII and the Nazi blockade of Atlantic shipping, Britain was importing ~60% of its food ---- with predictable consequences for agriculture.]

https://theconversation.com/brexits-impact-on-farming-policy-will-take-britain-back-to-the-1920s-but-thats-not-necessarily-a-bad-thing-80028
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinetpapers/themes/agriculture-act-depression-subsidy.htm

Wartime Farm - Documentary Series - History - British Collection
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUsU5s0ofYo
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj2leWh0oQffAt5ICQxQeZ2DSudUpSdCJ

Saturday, October 27, 2018

British Farming - Postwar

2018 British Farming > .
British Farming - Christmas > .

British Farming >>> .

Friday, October 26, 2018

Cloches, Row Covers, Greenhouses

How to use cloches
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiWoPG5i7cY

Hoop House: How to Make a Row Cover Tunnel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc70X2Jn1gk

Crewe Tractor

Insight into the work involved in the recreation of a Crewe Tractor – based on some 130 vehicles adapted by the London & North Western Railway (LNWR) at Crewe Works in the 1916-1917 period.

It is said that the inspiration for the idea came from the daughter of the LNWR’s Chief Mechanical Engineer, CJ Bowen-Cooke, who had become aware of a lack of powered transport on the lightly laid trench tramways operated behind the trenches across France and Belgium. The design saw the adaptation of a standard Ford Model T (manufactured in Trafford Park) complete with a lightweight utility body and kit-form railway chassis. So it was that they could, within one hour, be adapted from road trim to a two-foot gauge locomotive with load space. Initial trials appear to have used the brass-radiator Model Ts then being manufactured, though the actual production run would seem to have entirely utilised the pressed radiator type of the Model T variant. They did not form part of the War Department Light Railway (WDLR) fleet, rather being part of the motor transport pool – and were marked and numbered as such.

The design would seem to have been of indifferent success, and it is recorded that all remained in railway guise once so converted, possibly due to convenience but also perhaps due to the poor state of the roads at that time.

The first vehicle through our workshops was a US imported Model T with left-hand drive and built in 1922. It had been brought to the UK at some point in the past and fitted with an English-style van body. At Beamish it worked as a general delivery vehicle until withdrawn for overhaul and conversion to the Crewe Tractor. The conversion work was carried out in the museum’s Regional Heritage Engineering Centre and was largely the work of volunteer John Hodder, with assistance from Mike Davidson. The work was completed at Christmas 2016 and the Crewe Tractor can now be seen in use around the Museum. The loadbed includes a toolbox as well as a storage container of suitable period style, in which I can pack the laptop and other work regalia – a First World War padlock completes the picture!

You can follow the story of the Model Ts, and other vehicles at Beamish, on the Transport Blog at www.beamishtransportonline.co.uk.

Thursday, October 25, 2018

Designs for Garden Space Optimization

Succession planting

Succession planting

"Crop On with Charles Dowding, autumn harvests from summer plantings"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxRCd_gJ23w

"Polyculture and Succession - Farming with other species"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rACzpXUv778

Vertical, wall, arbour

Vertical Gardening - Simple Ideas for a Vertical Vegetable Garden
Pole or climbing beans; climbing peas; sweet potatoes; vining tomatoes; sprawling types of zucchini, cucumber, melon, squash; arbors - passionfruit; grapevine; climbing squashes, climbing beans; sweatpeas; fruit trees (apples, pears, cherries, etc); cane fruits (raspberries, blackberries)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HLho4vcJac

Vertical Gardening (USA)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdI2YrNIf5g
Space optimization
https://plus.google.com/103755316640704343614/posts/2jAytcoZFPk

Make the most of vertical spaces: RHS Greening Grey Britain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDhNCXWTUnI
RHS Greening Grey Britain
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXEVpDvKn91zZYTeUt1-prLXJh-B-WiVG

DfV - Dig for Victory

Making a Compost Heap > .

07:40 Fertilizer & Insecticides

Why Moderns Should Care About Victory Gardens - occ > .

Compost heap > .

50s House & Garden - Spark > .

>> Homefront WW2 >>>

Compost, soil, vermiculture - tb >> .
Dig for Victory, England WW2 - Γαῖα >> .

Home Front - Elice >> .

The 1940s House - Elice >> .

The 40s House - IWM >> .

The Dig for Victory Show - ShoplandCollection >> .

The Growing Revolution (Dig for Victory) - LOVE IT >> .

Victory Garden - USA, WW3 - Γαῖα >> .

Wartime, Subsistence Cooking - Elice >> .

Wartime Farm - Absolute History >> .

Wartime Farm, Kitchen & Garden (full) - archanth >> .

Wartime Kitchen, Garden, Farm - Elice >> .

MAF - Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries ..
MoF - Ministry of Food ..

Dig for Victory leaflets (image, large) .

Dig for Victory Monthly Guides .

Dig for Victory

In Britain, "digging for victory" used much land such as waste ground, railway edges, ornamental gardens and lawns, while sports fields and golf courses were requisitioned for farming or vegetable growing.

Sometimes a sports field was left as it was but used for sheep-grazing instead of being mown (for example see Lawrence Sheriff School § Effects of the Second World War).

By 1943, the number of allotments had roughly doubled to 1,400,000, including rural, urban and suburban plots.

C. H. Middleton's radio programme In Your Garden reached millions of listeners keen for advice on growing potatoes, leeks and the like, and helped ensure a communal sense of contributing to the war effort (as well as a practical response to food rationing).

County Herb Committees were established to collect medicinal herbs when German blockades created shortages, for instance in Digitalis purpurea (Foxglove) which was used to regulate heartbeat.

Victory gardens were planted in backyards and on apartment-building rooftops, with the occasional vacant lot "commandeered for the war effort!" and put to use as a cornfield or a squash patch.

During World War II, sections of lawn were publicly plowed for plots in Hyde Park, London to promote the movement, while allotments growing onions in the shadow of the Albert Memorial also pointed to everybody, high and low, chipping in to the national struggle.

Both Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle had vegetable gardens planted at the instigation of King George VI to assist with food production.

Victory garden - Wikipedia

Dig for Victory > .
?search Dig for Victory? .

Why Moderns Should Care About Victory Gardens - occ > .

Pests, diseases, and ghastly chemical pesticides

Victory Garden 1989-1991
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOj8txIbnv0Ht-5jGBUyeSx1daFNbIJEK

Dig for Victory ~ Ben
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYZbCEPmWCtOBY7R0r44RMo1_fONlBBIL

Wartime Kitchen & Garden ~ Ben
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYZbCEPmWCtNMSEGq5HvXsduK5H1f17zm

https://www.youtube.com/user/AbsolutelyFavulous/playlists?view=1&shelf_id=0&sort=dd
Original Victory Garden
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31hB5d__UT4

Dig for Victory - Ben Silver
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYZbCEPmWCtOBY7R0r44RMo1_fONlBBIL

.Why Moderns Should Care About Victory Gardens - occ > .

Victory gardens ww1 ww2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkPVInuJZII

Victory Garden >> .

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Electric Fence

Electric Fence

Image: LeJay "pendulum" style fence charger
http://www.pssurvival.com/PS/Electronic/Lejay_Manual_Electrical_5thed_1945_1988.pdf

Manual has electric fence controllers and windmill-generator-battery contraptions.

Ford Model T Trembler Coil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPTmSHjSu0A

LeJay Fence Charger Made From Model T Buzz Coil
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBBHuJiSY6c

How To - High Voltage from Model T "Buzz Coil"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aeb125R5QE

New Zealand innovation – improved electrical components and materials

During the late 1930s, emerging public safety issues and concerns about the newly emerging electric fences were considered at length, and began to be controlled more by regulations. In the 1960s, a different New Zealand inventor named Dough Phillips patented a new type of design using capacitor discharge, thus extending the feasible deign length of the fence and at the same time reducing its cost. This was duly patented using plastic insulators for flexibility and durability (instead of the previous porcelain) and similar systems continue to be used in agricultural electric fences today. Early fence charging devices used alternating current (AC) with a transformer and a mechanically operated switch, giving long pulses and sometimes of unpredictable voltages. As might be expected, these mechanical switches frequently failed, so later systems made use of solid state (transistor) circuitry instead of manual switching components. For a period, some types of fence energisers gave longer outputs. Nicknamed ‘weed burners’, this variant became known for causing fires in hot, dry weather and it was for this reason that their popularity reduced.
.........
The early development of the modern, pulsed electric fence commenced in New Zealand in 1936 when William "Bill" Gallagher built a primitive energiser from a cars' ignition coil to keep his horse off his car. This was soon extended to a fence and progressed from there. These early fence charging devices used alternating current (AC) with a transformer and a mechanically operated switch, giving long pulses and sometimes delivered unpredictable voltages. As might be expected, these mechanical switches frequently failed and the development of using capacitors and solid state circuits by another New Zealander, Doughy Phillips, greatly improved the efficiency of the system. These were generally known as "weed burners" as they tended to burn weed growth but did cause fires on occasions.
-----------
Further modern developments: ropes and insulators

Over recent years, there have been some significant improvements including polyethylene insulators, which last longer and are cheaper, along with the electrical design of the energizing units which are also called a fencer or energiser. Modern fence chargers use low impedance circuitry, in which a capacitor is charged by a solid-state circuit. If an animal (or a person) comes into contact with the fence, the charge is released by a thyristor. This is an electronic component which can be thought of as an automatic switch so the voltage is more controlled, and the shock pulse is much shorter – typically just a few milliseconds. Fences can be powered by batteries and solar panels; if a fence is in good condition, such batteries can last many weeks depending on fence length. Woven rope-like material containing conducting wires has also been developed. Electric fences are used primarily to stop livestock from escaping or from wandering onto farmland and damaging crops. Although the majority of electric fences today are used for animal control in this way, other applications include prisons, military bases and other protected installations. Here, the aim is to maintain security, or to stop people crossing a borderline or other physical limit. The voltage delivered can be varied and may be selected to cause discomfort or in security applications, incapacitating or lethal. Finally, probably due to their intrinsic risks, there have also been legislative changes and regulations in some countries regarding the construction and use of electric fences.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_fence
http://www.farmcareuk.com/blog/history-electric-fencing/
https://www.agrisellex.co.uk/blog/history-of-electric-fencing-1832-to-2016/831
https://www.smokstak.com/forum/showthread.php?t=95985 .

EU Agriculture

24-2-1 Farmers STORM the EU - Why? - EU Made SIMPLE > .

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Fertilizers

.Managing Sulfur For Your Crops - AgPhD > .

22-2-6 Decarbonising Ammonia production. Revolutionary new process - Just > .

.Fritz Haber - Nobel Laureate Who Killed Millions and Saved Billions - Veritasium > .

Growing plants need at least 16 nutrients to be healthy.

Primary nutrients are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, known by the chemical symbols of N, P and K.
Secondary nutrients are calcium, magnesium and sulfur.
Micronutrients include boron, chlorine, copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum and zinc.
Other nutrients that are easily available in the environment include carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. These last three do not need to be supplied by fertilizers.

Haber–Bosch process ..

Throughout the 19th century the demand for nitrates and ammonia for use as fertilizers and industrial feedstocks had been steadily increasing. The main source was mining niter deposits. At the beginning of the 20th century it was being predicted that these reserves could not satisfy future demands and research into new potential sources of ammonia became more important. The obvious source was atmospheric nitrogen (N2), comprising nearly 80% of the air, however N2 is exceptionally stable and will not readily react with other chemicals. Converting N2 into ammonia posed a challenge for chemists globally.

Ammonia was first manufactured using the Haber process on an industrial scale in 1913 in BASF's Oppau plant in Germany, reaching 20 tonnes per day the following year. During WW1, the production of munitions required large amounts of nitrate. The Allies had access to large sodium nitrate deposits in Chile (Chile saltpetre) controlled by British companies. Germany had no such resources, so the Haber process proved essential to the German war effort. Synthetic ammonia from the Haber process was used for the production of nitric acid, a precursor to the nitrates used in explosives.

Bones as Resource ..

During the war, nitrogen was one of the prime components of TNT and other high explosives. Post-war, munitions plants produced ammonia for fertilizer. Fertilizer use increased, partly due to enhanced supply and partly because farmers and agricultural scientists understood the importance of nutrients to crops.

Guano (bird droppings) became a popular fertilizer by 1800s. Trial and error experiments, first by farmers, later by scientists established the effectiveness of early fertilizers.

By the 1940s, plant scientists at universities and research facilities had determined the 16 essential ingredients for plant growth. The three primary nutrients—nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium—were needed in quantities approaching the millions of tons by 1940.

In the early part of the 20th Century, potassium was mined from potash deposits, the largest of which were in Germany. By 1940, new sources had been discovered in Canada, and there were chemical processes coming on line to supply potassium.

By 1940, phosphorus was also being produced by chemical processes and by mining phosphate rock. In the 1940s, the use of "normal superphosphate" fertilizers peaked. In later decades, it was replaced by triple superphosphate and ammonium phosphates.

Nitrogen production was boosted by WW2 developments. Nitrogen is, of course, one of the main ingredients in explosives.

During the 1940s, most of the ammonia was applied as solid ammonium nitrate pellets. But this form is highly explosive. In fact, ammonium nitrate mixed with fuel oil is a common explosive still used in mines. There were several disasters where the material exploded in ships or other transports.

By the mid 40s, researchers were exploring ways to apply anhydrous ammonia directly into the soil. It won't explode, but it has to be kept under pressure and usually refrigerated. It can "burn" skin by drying it severely, and it can crowd out oxygen in a closed area and even cause death by asphyxiation. But, anhydrous ammonia has the highest nutrient content of any fertilizer. It's 82.5 percent nitrogen.

https://livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe40s/crops_04.html .

Food - Importing vs Exporting Nations

Agricultural Futures - 21st C ..

Agricultural Geopolitics ..

Sunday, October 21, 2018

Haber–Bosch process

How the Earth's Population Exploded > .

22-2-6 Decarbonising Ammonia production. Revolutionary new process - Just > .

.Fritz Haber - Nobel Laureate Who Killed Millions and Saved Billions - Veritasium > .

The Haber process, also called the Haber–Bosch process, is an artificial nitrogen fixation process and is the main industrial procedure for the production of ammonia today. It is named after its inventors, the German chemists Fritz Haber and Carl Bosch, who developed it in the first decade of the 20th century. The process converts atmospheric nitrogen (N2) to ammonia(NH3) by a reaction with hydrogen (H2) using a metal catalyst under high temperatures and pressures:

\underbrace {{\ce {N2 + 3H2}}} _{\Delta H^{\circ }=0\,\mathrm {kJ} }{\ce {->}}\underbrace {{\ce {2NH3}}} _{\Delta H^{\circ }=-91.8\,\mathrm {kJ\cdot mol^{-1}} }

Before the development of the Haber process, ammonia had been difficult to produce on an industrial scale, with early methods such as the Birkeland–Eyde process and Frank–Caro process all being highly inefficient.

Although the Haber process is mainly used to produce fertilizer today, during WW1 it provided Germany with a source of ammonia for the production of explosives, compensating for the Allied Powers' trade blockade on Chilean saltpeter.

Throughout the 19th century the demand for nitrates and ammonia for use as fertilizers and industrial feedstocks had been steadily increasing. The main source was mining niter deposits. At the beginning of the 20th century it was being predicted that these reserves could not satisfy future demands and research into new potential sources of ammonia became more important. The obvious source was atmospheric nitrogen (N2), comprising nearly 80% of the air, however N2 is exceptionally stable and will not readily react with other chemicals. Converting N2 into ammonia posed a challenge for chemists globally.

Haber, with his assistant Robert Le Rossignol, developed the high-pressure devices and catalysts needed to demonstrate the Haber process at laboratory scale. They demonstrated their process in the summer of 1909 by producing ammonia from air, drop by drop, at the rate of about 125 ml (4 US fl oz) per hour. The process was purchased by the German chemical company BASF, which assigned Carl Bosch the task of scaling up Haber's tabletop machine to industrial-level production. He succeeded in 1910. Haber and Bosch were later awarded Nobel prizes, in 1918 and 1931 respectively, for their work in overcoming the chemical and engineering problems of large-scale, continuous-flow, high-pressure technology.

Ammonia was first manufactured using the Haber process on an industrial scale in 1913 in BASF's Oppau plant in Germany, reaching 20 tonnes per day the following year. During World War I, the production of munitions required large amounts of nitrate. The Allies had access to large sodium nitrate deposits in Chile (Chile saltpetre) controlled by British companies. Germany had no such resources, so the Haber process proved essential to the German war effort. Synthetic ammonia from the Haber process was used for the production of nitric acid, a precursor to the nitrates used in explosives.

....

The Haber process now produces 450 million tonnes of nitrogen fertilizer per year, mostly in the form of anhydrous ammonia, ammonium nitrate, and urea. Three to five percent of the world's natural gas production is consumed in the Haber process (around 1–2% of the world's energy supply). In combination with pesticides, these fertilizers have quadrupled the productivity of agricultural land:

With average crop yields remaining at the 1900 level the crop harvest in the year 2000 would have required nearly four times more land and the cultivated area would have claimed nearly half of all ice-free continents, rather than under 15% of the total land area that is required today.

Due to its dramatic impact on the human ability to grow food, the Haber process served as the "detonator of the population explosion", enabling the global populationto increase from 1.6 billion in 1900 to 7.7 billion by November 2018. Nearly 50% of the nitrogen found in human tissues originated from the Haber-Bosch process. Since nitrogen use efficiency is typically less than 50%, farm runoff from heavy use of fixed industrial nitrogen disrupts biological habitats. The Haber-Bosch process is one of the largest contributors to a buildup of Reactive nitrogen in the biosphere, causing an anthropogenic disruption to the Nitrogen cycle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7l8imwtMkY

Hemp, Fibres

1942 Hemp for Victory - US Government asks farmers to grow it > .

Carbon uptake & storage

Hemp ⇝

Hemp Hemp Hurray ↬

Hemp History, Soil, Climate ⇝

Horse Ploughing

Ploughing with Oxen > .
Power - Animal - treadwheel crane, ox, horse, goat, dog >> .
Horses, old tractors, ploughing

Thursday, October 18, 2018

Kew Gardens & Chelsea Physic Garden

Kew Gardens

The role of Kew Gardens during World War 2
http://www.landscapejuice.com/2014/06/the-role-of-kew-gardens-during-world-war-2.html

http://www.kew.org/files/story-kew-gardens-photographs-kew-world-war-ii

http://www.kew.org/science-conservation

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/52/a2504152.shtml

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardenstovisit/11484731/7-things-you-never-knew-about-Kew-Gardens.html

Kew spring: magnolias, tulips, daffodils, bluebells and blossom trees
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSBhXgJ6z5Y

World Garden - Kew
The Botanical Gardens at Kew
'A picture of springtime in Kew Gardens, of daffodils, bluebells, cherry blossom, of those exotic flowers from the tropics, the Andes, the Himalayas. In these lovely surroundings, Londoners find peace and serenity, while their children play. Rare plants are classified in the Herbarium; crop growers throughout the world are aided in their battle against pests and disease by Kew research.'
(Films of Britain - British Council Film Department Catalogue - 1942-43)
http://film.britishcouncil.org/world-garden
The Green Girdle

In a bid to encourage city-dwellers to leave behind the restrictions of war, 'The Green Girdle' escapes from the austere urban landscape of inner-city London and savours the natural delights of the capital’s rural surroundings.
British Council Film: The Green Girdle

Seasonal Change = Tree Identification
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9eARwl3qbFDpDqk1o9pnOlzvqrPwEZsD

Tree Identification playlist page

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCX7T-hjTnIRP7JZ6sW0pIGg/playlists
Chelsea Physic Garden
http://chelseaphysicgarden.co.uk/the-garden-during-the-second-world-war/

Keyline, swales, permaculture

P A Yeomans-Keyline in the Kiewa Valley (13 min) 1981 > .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz6vhoOg4Hc

P A Yeomans-Building a Keyline Dam (25 min) 1960 > .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5z5T378SM4

Joel Salatin on Pasture Management and Keyline Design for Grassfed Cattle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCu9S1AwEwA

Swale - Keypoint - Keyline - clarification > .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH3x4j_sifA

Keyline design is a technique for maximizing beneficial use of water resources of a piece of land. The Keyline refers to a specific topographic feature linked to water flow. Beyond that however, Keyline can be seen as a collection of design principles, techniques and systems for development of rural and urban landscapes.

In a smooth grassy valley, a location called the keypoint can be found where the lower and flatter portion of a primary valley floor suddenly steepens. The keyline of this primary valley is revealed by pegging a contour line through the keypoint, within the valley shape. All the points on the line are at the same elevation as the keypoint. Contour plowing parallel to the Keyline, both above and below will automatically become "off-contour" but the developing pattern will tend to drift rainwater runoff away from the valley centre and incidentally, prevent erosion.

Keyline pattern cultivation on ridge shapes is done parallel to any suitable contour but only working on the upper side of the contour guide line. This automatically develops a pattern of off-contour cultivation in which all the rip marks left in the soil will slope down towards the centre of the ridge shape. This pattern of cultivation allows more time for water to soak in. Keyline pattern cultivation also enables controlled flood irrigation of undulating land, which further assists in the fast development of deep biologically fertile soil, which results in improving soil nutrition and health.

In many countries, including Australia, it is important to get optimum absorption of rainfall and keyline cultivation does this as well as delaying the potentially damaging concentration of runoff. Yeomans' technique differs from traditional contour plowing in several important respects. Random contour plowing also becomes off contour but usually with the opposite effect on runoff water causing it to quickly shed off ridge shapes and be concentrated in valleys. The limitations of the traditional system of soil conservation, with its "safe disposal" approach to farm water was an important motivational factor in the development of the keyline system.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyline_design

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gytyQS6cyjA .

"Why are there so few profitable Permaculture Farms?"

Overview of 10 hectare farm: "Ridgedale Permaculture"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr5bKpc0x2Q
Keyline design is a technique for maximizing beneficial use of water resources of a piece of land. The Keyline refers to a specific topographic feature linked to water flow. Beyond that however, Keyline can be seen as a collection of design principles, techniques and systems for development of rural and urban landscapes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyline_design

"Starting a farm with no money"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXsANNfALus

"Is Regenerative Ag Profitable? Looking at Return on Investments ROI"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A0uNUN9UG0
https://youtu.be/-A0uNUN9UG0?t=8m39s

"Interview With Jack Spirko About Prepping, Permaculture, and Entrepreneurship"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_EtvsAS59s

Subtropics - Permaculture & Animal Systems ..

Permaculture Patterning with Animal Systems - Part 1 > .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgsf7EM_BNk .

Theory in Practice: A Tour of Zaytuna Farm > .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcgHvYWLs-Q .

Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Milking & Dairy

https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Alfa-Laval_Co
http://www.surgemilker.com/history.html
1930s milking parlour
https://youtu.be/CUsU5s0ofYo?t=6m12s
Lister engine and Alfa-Laval milking machine
https://youtu.be/pnkSPB-9BmQ?t=20m50s
Scraps of grass for hay - cows, milk - 1.3 billion gallons in '43
https://youtu.be/LyGdRw6vK8Q?t=10m53s
Allen scythe - new '43 model could be leased from Ministry of Agriculture
https://youtu.be/LyGdRw6vK8Q?t=15m28s
https://youtu.be/LyGdRw6vK8Q?t=23m21s
https://youtu.be/LyGdRw6vK8Q?t=44m56s
Baling machine - could be leased from Ministry of Agriculture
https://youtu.be/LyGdRw6vK8Q?t=45m14s
https://youtu.be/LyGdRw6vK8Q?t=51m51s
dairy cattle & milk production
https://youtu.be/bxztuX3fGVM?t=28m33s
mucking out cows
https://youtu.be/bxztuX3fGVM?t=47m11s
Calving, milking machine, vet, cottage-cheese from off-milk - Barbarossa & diverted shipping
https://youtu.be/pnkSPB-9BmQ?t=41m43s
Milk - calves fed artificial milk
https://youtu.be/j33DJk4-sMw?t=16m18s

Alfa-Laval Co

Monday, October 15, 2018

NFS - National Farm Survey

National Farm Survey of England and Wales 1941-1943

Governments do exceptional things in wartime. One of the lessons of the First World War was that Britain was vulnerable to the blockade of its Atlantic trade, and for that reason food imports could not be guaranteed. Nor was the transport of animal feedstuffs a good use of shipping in wartime. When war broke out again in 1939 the lessons of the First World War were acted on. The management of agriculture, which had been achieved late in the war, was re-introduced on the outbreak of renewed hostilities. The prompt institution of food rationing was another lesson learnt. The need to reduce dependency on imports a third. Deliberate steps were taken to shift agriculture onto a new footing to make the country more nearly self-sufficient: this meant a new concentration on grains and potatoes. Less importance was attached to either milk or meat production. The instrument by which this was to be achieved were the 61 County War Agricultural Executive Committees (CWAECs), again modelled on the arrangements which had emerged by the end of the previous war. The CWAECs would translate instructions from Westminster into practical action on the ground. In 1940 the CWAECs conducted a survey of farming. In 1941 the government launched a more comprehensive survey of individual farms, which has come to be known as the National Farm Survey.

http://www.listandindexsociety.org.uk/BritishFarmSurveys.pdf .

National Farm Survey (1941)

Between June 1940 and early 1941 some 85% of the agricultural area was surveyed.

Once the short-term objective of increasing food production had been met, thought was given to implementing a more general National Farm Survey with the purpose of providing data to form the basis of post-war planning. Every farm and holding of five acres (ranging from large farms to market and hop gardens) was surveyed and classified according to the physical condition of the land.

The National Farm Survey was begun in the spring of 1941 and largely completed by the end of 1943, undertaken by district committees who visited and inspected each farm and interviewed the farmer.

The records for each parish contain four printed forms:

C47 - A census return of small fruit, vegetables, bulbs and flowers, and stocks of hay and straw.
C51 - A census return of agricultural land providing details of crops and grass acreage, livestock numbers (including horses) and labour employed on the farm.
SF - Additional census questions on labour, motive power such as horses and tractors, rent payable, and how many years the farmer had occupied the farm.
B496 - The primary farm record, completed by an inspector for farms of 5 acres or more.

https://www.badsey.net/history/farm_survey.htm
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The most recent of the Modern Domesdays had a rather different aim: it sought not to tax the rich, but ensure the country could feed itself in the face of total war. With shipping under assault from German U-boats and facing the threat of Nazi invasion, Britain embarked on ‘Dig for Victory’. The domestic side to this is well known: rationing, allotments, parks dug up for growing vegetables. Less appreciated today is the effort that went into identifying rural land that wasn’t being farmed, or that had fallen into disuse during the agricultural depressions of the late 19th century and interwar years.

To do so, Churchill’s war ministry mandated a National Farm Survey, overseen by the new War Agricultural Committees set up to direct farming. The initial survey was carried out in 1940-41, followed by a larger, two-year survey intended to inform postwar planning, and seen at the time as a ‘Second Domesday’ (disregarding the various other modern Domesdays!).
https://whoownsengland.org/2017/03/05/a-guide-to-modern-domesdays/
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Though principally an investigation into land use, the National Farm Survey also interrogated ownership and tenancy. It covered all farms over 5 acres – around 320,000 farms in total – covering 99% of all agricultural land in England & Wales.

During WW2, food supplies from overseas were inevitably very limited. Farming and food production within the UK took on a renewed importance. Government information campaigns encouraging the public to make practical contributions to boosting food supplies used slogans such as ‘Dig for Victory’.

It was in this context that the National Farm Survey was carried out. The survey collected detailed data about the use of land in England and Wales for agriculture and animal husbandry. It covered all farms and market gardens larger than five acres (just over two hectares), a total of about 300,000 agricultural properties.

The information from the survey was originally used to plan for food production once the war had ended. From the outset, it was also intended to be preserved permanently as a public record, comparable in scope to the famous Domesday Book. Today, the records remain a useful and interesting source for researching the people, places and landscape of mid 20th-century England and Wales.

The National Farm Survey records

The ‘raw data’ of the survey consists of two sets of records: maps (record series MAF 73) and forms (record series MAF 32).

The maps are Ordnance Survey maps – or reduced-size copies of Ordnance Survey maps – annotated to show the location and extent of each farm. Depending on the scale used, there can be up to 16 map sheets in a portfolio.

The bundles of forms normally contain four separate forms for each farm. Three of them are ‘census’ forms completed by the farmer in June 1941. The fourth, called the primary farm record, was completed later by an inspector who visited the farm.

Each farm was assigned a number. This was marked on the relevant part of the map and on each of the forms to serve as a cross-reference between related records.

The individual farm records

Each individual farm record comprises up to four forms. Each form gives:

the name of the farmer and farm
the address
the parish
the individual farm code (see section 3)
Three of these forms were effectively an enlarged 1941 farm census return, posted to the farmer for him to complete on 4 June 1941. The three forms show details of:

small fruit, vegetables, and stocks of hay and straw
agricultural land
labour, engines, rent, and length of occupancy
The fourth form, the Primary Farm Survey, was completed by an inspector who visited the farm and interviewed the farmer. The Primary Farm Survey has four sections:

section A: ‘tenure’, stating whether the farmer was a tenant or owner, full or part time
section B: ‘conditions of farm’, assessing farm layout, soil type, condition of buildings and roads, and the degree of infestation with weeds or pests
section C: water and electricity provision
section D: ‘management’, in which the inspector had to classify the farm reflecting how a farmer managed his resources:
well (A)
fairly well (B)
badly (C)
If B or C were due not to old age or lack of capital but to ‘personal failings’, the inspector had to say what these were. This was to assess where farm management could be improved, but was naturally a controversial part of the survey.
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Forty Hall estate, which is shown on sheet Middlesex II SE. About three-quarters of its 260½ acres were given over to grass. No fruit or vegetables were grown for human consumption apart from a small amount of potatoes, although root vegetables were grown for animal fodder. A variety of animals were raised: sheep, cattle, pigs, chickens and geese.

Only two of the farm’s nine workers were women. The workers had four horses to help with the labour and one tractor.

The land was not naturally good for farming – a quarter of it was considered to be of poor quality – but there were no infestations of pests. The state of the buildings, roads, fences and ditches was good. The arable land was fairly well kept and adequately fertilised but the pasture was in poor condition.

>> Homefront WW2 >>>

http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/digging-victory/

https://www.badseysociety.uk/national-farm-survey-1941/what-was-the-national-farm-survey-and-why-was-it-undertaken .
https://www.badsey.net/history/farm_survey.htm .

https://whoownsengland.org/2017/03/05/a-guide-to-modern-domesdays/ .

Digging for Victory? .

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/help-with-your-research/research-guides/national-farm-survey-england-wales-1941-1943/

Records of Agricultural Education and Advisory Services
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C794
Agricultural economics
http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/browse/r/h/C204

https://books.google.ca/books?id=O32fBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA125&lpg=PA125&dq=National+Farm+Survey+of+England+and+Wales+1941-1943&source=bl&ots=TooWWPowA5&sig=Pl2FHHeNVqSfsOm4HInxBI1iCXI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CDcQ6AEwBmoVChMIvIXd6ercyAIVRlYeCh0hOwlM#v=onepage&q=National%20Farm%20Survey%20of%20England%20and%20Wales%201941-1943&f=false

https://books.google.ca/books?id=BU-RabP5J6UC&pg=PA110&lpg=PA110&dq=National+Farm+Survey+of+England+and+Wales+1941-1943&source=bl&ots=d__reswsAk&sig=OPy_iG1WrEAHkK9XUF2oaLDegFg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0CC0Q6AEwA2oVChMIvIXd6ercyAIVRlYeCh0hOwlM#v=onepage&q=National%20Farm%20Survey%20of%20England%20and%20Wales%201941-1943&f=false

Pages

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

●● Land ◊

Sunday, October 28, 2018

Agricultural Futures - 21st C

Agriculture 1921-1939