A WET SEASON 351 



light horse-breeding we were told was declining 

 because of the uncertainty of the returns, though a 

 good many farmers with working mares of the right 

 stamp, not too heavy, would still put them to a 

 thoroughbred stallion. 



Though the stock farmer suffers least from a rainy 

 season, the outlook in West Cornwall was poor 

 enough in 1912; in mid- August a great deal of hay 

 was still in the fields, some of the corn had been cut 

 for a fortnight and rained upon every day since, the 

 uncut corn was going down under the wild winds, the 

 second cut clover had shot to such a height that it 

 would be difficult and wasteful to graze, and the roots 

 were all thick with weeds, which hoeing had done little 

 more than transplant. Fortunately Cornish farmers 

 do not sell their corn, so that if they could harvest it 

 at all, discolouration and even sprouting would be of 

 little consequence ; but, accustomed as they were to 

 rather more rain and wind than the ordinary arable 

 farmer, 1912 was proving a heartbreaking experience. 



From Penzance we moved east to Padstow, the 

 market town of a rather special district of arable 

 farming, distinguished by its considerable acreage of 

 barley. The country was not unlike Cornwall farther 

 west, consisting of the same treeless uplands divided 

 by immense stone-faced banks with scrub atop, valued 

 for the protection they afford against the winds that 

 sweep from one sea to the other over the peninsula. 



Though the fields were still small, farms were larger 

 than in West Cornwall, from 130 to 250 acres, and 

 rents ranged from 2Os. to 303., having risen by 25 per 

 cent, or so within the last few years. Labour was 

 described as scarce, the standing wage being 153. a 

 week, with a cottage and a breadth of potatoes and 

 sundry other perquisites, which would make up the 



