The Peasant and Gardens Times they are a-changing Climate change is a very real thing, despite recent pronouncements by the last president of the US. How much of it is due to the human race and how much would have occurred naturally is open to debate, but one thing is undeniable, the climate is changing. The year seems to get later and later. I can remember in my youth that Christmas was usually cold, sometimes snowy and always wet, but now everything is at least a month later. This will need a lot of change of attitudes from people. Winter corn has to be planted much later than before. Crops planted in September and early October are now too forward for the cold Spring and Spring crops are a job to establish because of the cold, dry conditions. For livestock farmers, an early turnout is not possible because the frosty conditions mean the grass is not growing and also it will cut down the amount available for sileage and thus the next winter’s amount of fodder is depleted. We shall have to have a complete rethink and all modern teaching will have to be changed. Plant breeders will have to develop a strain of plants that is more resistant to cold weather and long periods of
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near drought. Maize has to be changed the most. The ground at the moment is still cold and every day that we delay planting brings us nearer to the midsummer equinox and the corresponding shortening days thereafter and it will not be sufficiently grown in time for harvest. You will get a crop, but it will have to be managed in a different way. I personally think it will be a very interesting time and a lot of people will have to change their way or go out of business very soon. I wish I were just at the start of my farming days instead of at the end of them. Good luck to those persevering. We shall have to be less dependent on the weather and more on our own feelings. ‘The best boot belongs to the boss’ and that will prove to become more and more true as time goes on. The days as we call them will be gone because instead of a calendar, a clock and experience will be more useful. Whether ‘the boot’ should be on a boss’s foot or applied to those who do the work is open to question! Ben Barton Ben, as you see, was in philosophical mood when I took this dictation but still very alive to the news, and climate, around us.
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Signpost June 2021
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