50 A NEW AGRICULTURAL POLICY 



moved to a fold inside the park gates under 

 the shelter of the wonderful evergreen oaks. 

 Yet inside the park I actually found some 

 fields which, although ploughed in 191 7, had 

 been allowed to go back to grass. 



There was some land at Hat Hill which 

 might have come under the plough with ad- 

 vantage to the nation, especially as there was 

 land adjoining, practically of the same texture, 

 which had been cultivated for years. Sheep 

 could no longer be used as an excuse. Too 

 long had England suffered from the sheep- 

 eating men, as Mr. Chesterton says in his 

 delightful, though erratic " History." Now 

 men should eat the sheep and win bread in 

 abundance. 



Striding across Goodwood racecourse the 

 woods of West Dean Park become visible, and 

 beyond lies a valley of beautiful alluvial soil. 

 This estate runs, I believe, for 9 miles through 

 the valley, and is some of the finest corn-grow- 

 ing land in England. This was pointed out by 

 Cobbett in his Rural Rides: "And here am I 

 on the turnpike road from Midhurst to Chi- 

 chester. The land goes along through some 

 of the finest farms in the world. It is im- 

 possible for corn land and agriculture to be finer 

 than these." And to-day we have the authority 

 of Hall and Russell that " wheat is most ex- 

 tensively grown in the maritime districts of 

 Sussex, and again on the chalk, and lower and 



