Re: "Prevent deer damage with fencing, hedgerows," Aug. 23.
Every day I recite a prayer: "Lord, please protect my farm from pestilence, drought, developers, and city folk offering advice."
And now, according to a writer who lives in Oak Bay, I am to plant hedgerows to protect my crops from deer. However, I am still expected to offer my wares at competitive prices. (See any deer fencing in Surrey? I thought not.)
All farmers work hard. Very hard. It disappoints me to realize that some folk think that we cannot manage our properties in a businesslike manner.
The notion of hedgerows is quaint and evokes images of rural splendour. I tried planting hedgerows on my farm for privacy. The deer ate the seedlings.
As for fences, I have more than a kilometre of them. Do they keep the deer out? Not unless they are two metres high. Expensive.
My grandfather said: "Feeding an urban population is like feeding bears. When the food runs out, they do not understand."
When I read suggestions like those offered about hedgerows, I wonder why I bother to try.
Believe me, a few days without food will change a lot of attitudes about deer, but by then, your local farmers will have given up. What then?
David Pollock
View Royal
