The Social Study of Family Farming

Abstract

In general the objective study of English country life has been much neglected and our view of it is obscured by a sentimental or romantic outlook which is a peculiar characteristic of the English. It is true that certain aspects of country life have been carefully investigated for many years. Agriculture, the basic industry of the countryside, has been given a great deal of attention and much is known about farming techniques and economic structure. The rural landscape has been studied by geographers who have, for example, analysed its evolution or shown how patterns of settlement and land use can be related to such factors as relief, soil, climate or other aspects of the physical environment. Thus we know in some detail about the geographical background to East Anglian cereal growing or to sheep farming on the Lakeland fells as well as the most efficient methods to use in these areas, the effects of using new fertilizers or modern machinery and the economics of livestock husbandry or wheat production. Unfortunately, these studies have become more and more specialised and their relevance to each other has become increasingly difficult to discern. Even more serious, the social study of farming has been almost completely ignored, and very little indeed is known about the social organisation and structure of the farming community or, for that matter, of country folk as a whole.