52 A NEW AGRICULTURAL POLICY 



bered corn being grown on that land forty-five 

 years ago ; and another who had helped to grub 

 up the hedges when it was converted into park- 

 land. " This is the cream of England, sir," 

 exclaimed one man in his enthusiasm for the 

 rich fertility of the soil there. Certainly if the 

 allotments just outside the park walls were any 

 guide to its productivity, it should yield some 

 very fine crops. But here, again, I heard it 

 was either sheep or deer which stood in the 

 way of the plough. 



Yet even shepherds — and most of the men 

 I talked with were shepherds or stockmen — 

 realised the importance of bread before mutton. 

 They did not eat the mutton they helped to 

 raise. "This parkland," asserted one shepherd to 

 me, " would produce better crops than the 

 land broken up on the top of Bury Hill." 

 Certainly the land to the north of the park is 

 poor, but this park is so large that something 

 more than 47 acres should have been scheduled 

 for ploughing. 



Arundel Park, which consists of 1425 acres, 

 was a more difficult problem than any of the 

 other parks I visited. Here, again, deer formed 

 the chief difficulty. (This obstacle, by the way, 

 to improved cultivation had been unnecessarily 

 strengthened by a stupid letter sent out by the 

 Food Control Department. The Duke of 

 Beaufort produced this letter as the counter- 

 stroke when he was asked to break up more land 



