The Mechanisation of Agriculture

Описание: Episode 34 - Mechanisation. A more detailed look at the advancement of mechanised farming during the plough-up campaigns of the Second World War. Gyrotillers, Fordson Ns and Ford-Fergusons using Harry Ferguson's three-point linkage were rolled out to revolutionise agriculture - at least in the eyes of the government. The offical history 'Land at War' by Laurie Lee conceptually linked a state of nature to death, as a wilderness is not cultivated, and without cultivation we risk being starved out of the war. We discuss what ordinary farmers thought of tractors, and briefly the failure of the Tanyanika Groundnut Scheme.

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Sources:
George Stapledon, 'The Way of the Land', 'Make Fruitful the Land', 'The Land: Now and To-morrow'
Laurie Lee, 'Land At War'
Virgil, 'The Georgics'
C S Orwin, 'The Future of Farming'

Media used:
British Council Films: 'Power on the Land', 'The Green Girdle', 'Hospital School', 'Make Fruitful the Land', 'Lowland Village'
Interview with Francis William Bird, East Midlands Oral History Archive.

0:00 - Intro
0:28 - Farming with Nature?
2:01 - The Machines
4:17 - Mechanics on the Land
6:25 - Nature Means Death
9:15 - Farmers' attitudes
10:20 - An environmentalism