Thomas Hardy, in books like from the Madding Crowd, glorified life in rural England. This was at the end of nineteenth century.
But even then he was pessimistic about the industrialization of agriculture: A harsh scene in Tess of the D'Urbevilles shows Tess forced to work at the pace of a steam-driven threshing machine.
Nowadays farming in Britain is highly mechanized. Combine harvesters have replaced teams of farmworkers. Milking machines mean that one person can handle the cows alone.
Efficency has been gained, but at the expense of co-operation and convivality.
Many farmers remember with nostalgia the days when everybody used to help each other with their harvest.
The last straw was the disapperance of the milk churn. Farmers used to congregate at a central point every morning with their churns. They used to exchange news and advice while they waited for the milk lorry.
But now a tanker calls at every farm. And the farmers rarely meet their neighbours.
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