SIR, It appears that the present debate about the future of farming in this country is concerned chiefly with economics, social amenity and conservation.

There is little mention of those involved most - the farmers and their families.

Shortly before the last war, Sir George Stapledon, then principal of the College of Agriculture at Aberystwyth, wrote a book on Hill Farming in Britain.

In his introduction he advanced the view that over the years, the most important product of our upland farms were the men and women who were willing to accept the demands of a way of life which was often harsh and never easy.

This is surely still true today, in spite of all the benefits of modern machinery and domestic appliances.

Living on the 1,000 foot contour line in our sort of climate would have little appeal to most of us.

Sir George went on to maintain that the most valuable export of such farms had been the young men and women who in each generation had left their farms and gone into the towns, taking with them not only a readiness to work hard, together with qualities of resourcefulness and self-reliance but also an ingrained morality.

In doing so they were a reinvigorating element in our urban society which was vital to its continuing health.

So he suggested that, in a sense, they could be regarded as serving the purpose of a foundation stock which, therefore, needed to be preserved.

That again is surely still true today.

Obviously, economics, social amenity and the conservation of the natural environment are all important factors which bear upon the future of the rural countryside, but I am sure many of your readers would agree that Lord Haskins's Commission should give proper consideration to this human factor, and I have written to him along those lines.

This is not mere sentiment for a past way of life which has already changed and will need to change still more.

But we need fell farmers for themselves, as well as their farms and what they produce.

So let us hope that the commission will be able to devise the conditions under which hill farming can continue as a vital part of our national life.

Ingram Cleasby

Dent