Reasons not to grow sugar beet in or around 72,000 acres in Essex, from the Saffron Walden Advisory Committee minutes, and the reaction of the Committee members. I have edited out the names of the farms. The average acreage of the 640 "farms" was 108 acres, but I do not have a full set of the farm surveys completed the previous autumn, which are available at Kew. Some were small market gardens.The meetings were held on 14/1/1942 and on 4/2/1942.
Although it may not have been Essex, I have seen mention of troops - and I'm talking teeth units destined for Normandy - harvesting beet, so it was clearly important.
There's a fair few mentions of sugar beet: ww2 farm bbc sugarbeet - Google Search In the BBC - WW2 People's War archive: i.e. BBC - WW2 People's War - Children's Land Army With... " Children's Land Army by Peter Brinkley Clarke You are browsing in: Archive List > Working Through War Archive List > Childhood and Evacuation Archive List > United Kingdom > Lincolnshire Contributed by Peter Brinkley Clarke People in story: Peter Brinkley Clarke Location of story: South Lincolnshire Article ID: A2072756 Contributed on: 23 November 2003 During WW2, as a schoolboy in South Lincolnshire, because most men working on farms had been called up to the armed services, we were encouraged by Government posters and local gang masters to work on the land.These gang masters were employed by the farmers to organize groups of willing helpers to assist with seasonal jobs. During Spring holidays and in the evenings, which were prolonged by Double British Summer Time, we would be working in the fields singleing out sugar beet plants with a hand held hoe, this was back breaking work. In early Summer we would be picking peas and early potatoes. The Summer school holidays were extended by 22 days by Government license giving an opportunity to 12 and 13 year old boys and girls to participate in the harvesting of the late crop of potatoes. These 22 days were organized by the Education Authority and not by the gangmasters. During this period a group of about 20 children would be picked up together with a teacher from outside the schoolby a small bus, supplied by the farmer and taken to his farm. On arrival we would be allocated jobs, the lucky one would be given the job of driving a horse and cart from the field to the place where the potatoes were stored. The potatoes were stored in graves which were constructed by digging a small trench in the ground, stacking the potatoes in it and covering them with straw and finally with a layer of soil. These graves were usually about 50 to 100 metres long. Other children would be set to work picking potatoes up from the soil, these were spun out by a special appliance pulled by a tractor, but during wet weather when the soil was sticky the potatoes would be ploughed out by a horse pulling a singled bladed plough. The system for this work was that the furrow under which the potatoes were grown would be measured out and then divided into equal lengths and you would collect the potatoes in your allocated length, putting them in a round basket which was known as a molly. The tractor or plough would go up and down the rows working from both ends of the field so you would have to keep changing from one side to the other of your length. The full mollies would be emptied into the cart and taken to the grave. The rate at which you worked at was determined by the speed of the tractor or plough. Working during wet weather was very uncomfortable as despite the weather we had to keep on working and by the time we got home we were often soaked right through to the skin. Suitable waterproofs were not availble to children during these times. We had to take our own sandwiches and drinks, which were either cold tea or water. During hot weather we were able to get more water from the farm well. As well as schoolchildren, working with us on the farm there would be a young man, probably 16 or 17 who was under call-up age, driving the tractor. There would also be two older men, over call-up age, one who would be lifting the mollies into the cart and the other working at the grave stacking the potatoes. When the potatoes were being sent straight to market they would be put into riddles to remove the soil and then placed in hessian sacks by local women who were working on the farm. The potatoes would be taken to the railway station to be sent to the potato markets in London and Nottingham. For our work we received the following payments; For Pea picking - about one shilling and sixpence (7.5p) per bag, which weighed 28lbs and took about 4 hours to fill. If it was underweight it would be rejected. For early potatoes the pay was three shillings (15p) a day. Working under the control of the school we received one shilling and ninepence (13p) per day. At this time the wage for a male agricultural labourer was approximately three pounds per week and women got less. Although this was hard work and several children did not last the full time most of us found it great fun and had a sense of helping the War effort."
Harvesting sugar beet was a brutal job as there was virtually no mechanisation, they were mainly lifted in the early winter months from heavy wet soils and the beets them selves were not dainty beetroots but great heavy misshaped roots caked with heavy muddy soil which soon adhered to the lifter. Legislation was passed during the war effectively banning the use of anyone under 18 in beet harvesting. Children could be used to hoe weeds out from the crop as described above but that was it. Harvesting beet was a job nobody wanted to do and finding labour was always a problem. In the end most of this came from those who could be directed to do it - Soldiers, The Womens Land Army and POWs. However the statement about using troops destined for Normandy makes little sense as the Sugar Beet harvest was not in the summer months. The problem was actually greatest in the immediate post war years when agricultural labour had not returned to the land after demobilisation and the WLA was leaking away due to inept government handling. There was increasing reliance on the use of POWs which is why many Germans were not repatriated until 1948. This gave rise to complaints in Parliament about the use of slave labour which gave the Labour administration not a little embarrassment as much of it came from their own benches. It was the introduction of some mechanisation that saved matters The County War Agricultural Committees had almost dictatorial powers and could order farmers to grow a particular crop on pain of eviction from their own land if they failed to do so. However despite some lurid stories the cold statistics show that this was a sanction rarely imposed. The CWACs varied widely and some were accused of being "Hitlers in Gum Boots" but most tried to use consultation and persuasion nevertheless the threat was always there and often bitterly resented especially where farmers had spent generations developing the land for different crops
I didn't study carrot growing specifically but the whole of British wartime agriculture. Carrots were grown wherever there was light sandy well drained soils which can be found as far apart as Kent and the West of Scotland
One factor in deciding what to grow where was the amount of fertiliser needed growing grain on light sandy soils required twice as much for the same yield whereas carrots needed none. The chemicals in fertilisers could also be used in explosives. Total war is a complicated business
Indeed. I can remember mixing powdered or crystalline weed killer with sugar and putting a match to it back in the mid-1960's but lost interest before it was withdrawn from general sale. Also asking for iodine crystals ( not much for one shilling ) and ammonium hydroxide which produced a volatile compound when dry. You could then hit it and produce a bang, and a stain.
You could achieve the latter with iodine and domestic bleach using blotting paper but it was a bit too sensitive but a lot cheaper than buying caps
Very clever, and a great deal cheaper than the university chemicals shop in Leeds where they used to puzzle why a nine-year old wanted to buy iodine crystals. Must have made them smile.