Robert Graves use of "Slut Farming" and "Squitch:" Any Britons know what these m

Maybe this should be in GQ, but it does involve literature…

In Robert Graves’ autobiography, Goodbye to All That, at one point ol’ Bob points out that the district he was living in was known for “slut farming,” and a farmer jests to a politician that the main crop therebouts is “squitch.”

I found “squitch grass” on Google, but my search for “slut farming” not not go well, as you may imagine. Please tell me none of this means what it could appear to mean.

I’m guessing here a bit. Squitch grass (or quitch grass) is a pernicious weed. That might just mean that the people grow only weeds. Slut in times past didn’t necessarily have sexual connotations, but meant either an untidy woman or a female servant (definitions). So it might all be innocent, simply referring to the area’s unkempt nature.

But knowing Graves, I’m really not terribly convinced. I can’t find any evidence for squitch as a term for sex (although “squick” is more recently), but I wouldn’t rule it out that the passage had a sexual nature.

Robert Graves wrote about that term again, this time explaining it - see The Long Week End: A Social History of Great Britain, 1918-1939

… And the explanation was…? :face_with_raised_eyebrow: :thinking:

@trishymouse, welcome to the SDMB! Good find for answering the question! Unfortunately, @_possum_stalker seems to have last visited these boards 17 years ago (not long after that post), so it’s unlikely they’re going to see your answer.

It’s highlighted in the excerpt trishymouse linked to:

…‘slut farmers’ - men with sufficient private means not to worry about making their farms pay. They left their fields to get full of thistles and even thornbushes…

So, pretty much what @refusal suggested.

As per the link provided:

edit: ninjaed!

I think I’d like to be a slut farmer.

Huh. I guess I didn’t (still don’t) see that link. :pensive:

Well, I’d certainly like to be a slut. I don’t really care what specific job I don’t have to make pay because I already have enough money. Slut postman, slut writer, slut astronaut, it all works for me.