A measured view of farm development

I ENJOYED Stephen Cadogan’s article (September 3) on agriculture in Ireland during the Emergency.

I am reminded of a story about compulsory tillage as it affected one farmer. A tall tillage inspector took very long steps when he was measuring out the area for tillage.

The farmer, watching the inspector, compared him to a small engineer with short steps employed by the Land Commission employed when dividing land.

The farmer said to the inspector: “It is a pity the Land Commission did not have you when they were dividing the land and I would have got a much bigger farm.”

An interesting fact is that the British supplied us with 20,000 tons of wheat per year during the Emergency.

We also got a share of what the convoys brought across the Atlantic despite the fact that the British were not allowed to use Irish ports to combat the U-boat menace.

The Americans were allowed the use of Northern Ireland ports during the war and the North boomed as a result.

Noel Flannery

‘Oldfield’

South Circular Road

Limerick