Corn Country

Abstract

CORN growing in Great Britain falls roughly into three periods: the open field period from early times up to the end of the eighteenth century; the craftsman period which attained its highest development during the years 1850 to 1880; and the modern period in which science and machinery dominate, and which set in about 1890. The countryside now shows little but vestigial remnants of the open field system, but memories of the craftsman period still linger among the old men, and form part of the background of our village life. Happily, various modern writers have discovered the literary value of English country life, and a considerable number of books are being written about it; some by those who have actually gone through what they describe, such as Fred Kitchen, a farm worker with a natural gift for writing; others by men who have explored farms and villages to note down what they could see and hear.

Corn Country

By C. Henry Warren. Pp. viii + 136 + 34 plates. (London: B. T. Batsford, Ltd., 1940.) 10s. 6d. net.