3-070-663 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Ploughing on the Sussex Downs, 1881. 'The practice of agriculture in some districts of the southern counties, within about fifty miles of the metropolis, is still rather behind the age. A team of oxen may yet be seen drawing the plough, to break up new soil for arable cultivation...We cannot doubt but that something may be said in favour of the use of bovine force, as a matter of economy, in certain local situations; and it is safe to suppose that the farmer knows his business at least as well as any Londoner could guess at it for him. The sight is, nevertheless, one of rare occurrence in some other parts of England, which have the reputation of an advanced style and condition of agricultural enterprise. It was common enough in Somersetshire half a century ago. We can only join, with all our hearts, in the good old-fashioned toast, then so often drunk with due honours at the country market-dinner, "Gentlemen, Speed the Plough!" Or else, putting the sentiment in another form, as it was usually given at the yearly festive meeting of the Farmers' Club, when the Squire would take the chair, "Success to the plough, the fleece, and the flail, May the landlord ever flourish, and the tenant never fail!"' From "Illustrated London News", 1881.