A Texan in England - J. Frank Dobie

Like the majority of dairy men in this country, he has "dual purpose" cows - good for both milk and beef
This passage reminded me of the "beef" ordeal this summer at Oxford. I cannot recall a single dinner in the five weeks that I was there that involved beef. It was on the tails of the mad-cow scare and the Oxford administration did not want to send Americans home sick. The final banquet of the program was supposed to be really nice, so we decided on Beef Wellington. It did not really matter to me because I don't eat beef, but there was a "beef" meeting a couple of weeks before the banquet. The topic of the meeting - "Where did we want the beef to come from, Scotland or Argentina?" It ended up being Argentina. But anyway, this made me think about the dairy farmers in England now? How did the mad-cow disease affect their lives?

The people don't seem driven into rushing after a happiness that money can't buy
I found this to be true. People don't seem to be preoccupied with fast money, cars, and insane luxuries as we do in the U.S. People are content to listen to the birds, enjoy a nice day in the meadows - maybe we in the U.S. (as a whole) would be too if we had places of refuge even close to being as beautiful (an understatement) and relaxing as England does.

What constantly strikes an American is that so much wild life is preserved in a country so densely populated
Again I concur with my fellow Texan. On my first night in England, I walked through a common (about three miles) to the Trout Pub. Cows and sheep (including their messes) covered almost every inch of this common. Natives may have been watching me and my friends stop to take picture and examine the mounds of feces present - they must have thought us strange. I have never been around so many animals except at the zoo. I didn't grow up on a farm so this was all new to me.

Many of the best farmers of this country stay with the same ground as renters for generations
This passage made me think of Wordsworth's poem "Michael" and how he was so afraid that his farm would end up in strangers' hands. I don't know much about farm life, but I think it must be horrible to see the land you worked so hard on passed on. I get attached to my apartment that I only live in for a year - I can't imagine what it is like for farmers who till the land, treat it like their children, and watch it be taken away.