Modern Humus Farming (PDFDrive)

MODERN HUMUS
FARMING
by
FRIEND SYKES
'This is OUI medical testament,

given to all whom it may concern-
and whom does it not concern ?'
Cheshire Medical Testamen'
FABER AND FABER LIMITED

24 Russell Square
London
MOD
HUMUS
FARMING
FRIEND
by the same author
•
HUMUS-AND THE FARMER
FOOD, FARMING AND THE FUIURE
Modem Humus Farming
by
FRIEND SYKES
With an Introduction by lAdy Howard
Friend Sykes's Humus-and the Farmer,
enthusiaatically, . .r.ec~v.ed in J 946, now
wean a new jacket and bears a new title,
for the time had come for its author to re-
assea his tenets and report on a further
twelve yean of perseverance in them. One
or two of the chapters have required but
little modification, but there is much fresh
material as well as restatement, with a
decade's experience to clinch the argu-
ments, of the principles of humus farming
laid down in earlier editions. The story of
the author's reclamation of so much 'space-
out-of-doon' at Chantry, Chute, of his
curing of 'incurable' cattle ills and breed-
ing of successful thoroughbred racehorses
on humw-grown herbage, of his biological
approach to the building and conservation
of soils, are part of farming history.
'The biological consciousness of which
I apeak', Friend Sykes writes in his new
. Preface, 'is the state of mind which I still,
and more ardently than ever, advocate.'
And as ardently as ever this compost farmer
condemns heavy applications of artificials
which make rank and poor-quality crops
'jump out of the ground' ; the very real
threat to crops, man and beast from the
widespread use of poison sprays, hormones
and insecticides; cattle disease for which
deficient herbage is responsible; the false-
hood of statistics; the playing down of
primary truths; the folly of many forms
of food processing; the failure to realize
that insect pests and fungi are, as it were,
'censors and mentors'; the blacker impli-
cations of the modern passion for speed
and ahort-cuts.
With 115 illustrations from photographs, and
. R""",S
28s
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MODERN HUMUS FARMING

1. The author at 71
First published in mcmlix
by Faber and Faber Limited
24 Russell Square London W. C.l
Printed in Great Britain by
Latimer Trend & Co Ltd Plymouth
All rights reserved
© Friend Sykes
1959
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NOTE OF DEDICATION
Humus-and the Farmer and Food, Farming and the Future were
dedicated to my three god-children- Michael, Pauline and
Richard. This, my third book, is similarly addressed to them. But
what changes the intervening years have wrought in these three
young lives.
Pauline is 25, and mother of two young daughters, lives in
Aberdeenshire, and is happily married to a chartered accountant.
Michael is 25, spent four years at Marlborough, and after three
years at Christ's College, Cambridge, graduated, and now wears
his degree M.A. (Agric-Cantab). He tben served his 'two-years'
as a Commissioned Gunner, with more than half his time in Ger-
many. His soldiering over, he returned to the farm where he was
reared, and for the past two years has assumed ever-increasing
control of the farm management. His terrific virility, coupled with
an inborn practical aptitude for farming, has wrought transforma-
tions and improvements for which he is here given every credit.
The part he has played in creating our most efficient system of
harvesting, collecting, and conditioning of grain must be empha-
sized. Natural gifts of inventiveness and engineering practices have
enjoyed full scope, and a factory for grain cleaning, storage, and
conditioning is evidence of a genius in control, and is now an
example for the world to see.
My own international reputation, both as farmer and consul-
tant, may safely be left as his inheritance. I am satisfied he cannot
do other than add lustre to our name.
With ability and energy such as he has displayed he must make
his mark in the agricultural practices of the next half-century.
Richard spent five years at Marlborough, after which he did
his two-years' service. Like Michael, he gained his Commission as
a Gunner. He then did one year on the farm, and decided to be
v
DEDICATION
'articled' to Surveying, Auctioneering & Estate Management. He
served fifteen months with John Jeffery & Son, Salisbury, and is
now attached to another firm in Norfolk. He has passed his
preliminary examination, and after two further exams., and two
more years of Practical Articles, he hopes to obtain his degree in
the subjects associated with his interesting calling.
All three children retain their love for the land upon which they
were reared, and I can think of no more worthy dedication than
that this third work should be addressed to the children who have
pleased me so well.
F.S.
vi
TO THE READER
fore reading the twenty-one chapters of Modern Humus
B Fa.rming you should, the author suggests, read 'Introduction:

The Balance of Nature', by Lady Howard; and next, the
Appendixes, containing contributions by Sir James Turner, Sir
Samuel Wadharn, Sir Herbert Broadley, Mr. Jorian Jenks and
Doctor Milton.
From these varied writings the reader will obtain a preview of
the manifold problems dealt with in this book.
FRIEND SYKES
10 January 1959
Chantry,
Chute,
Andover,
England.
vii
PREFACE
W
hen my Humus and the Farmer appeared in 1946 I
believed, and assured the reader, that I was not going
to make a habit of authorship. About five years later,
however, I wrote my second book, Food, Farming and the Future,
for I had urgent matters to discuss, including corroborations of
most of my earlier theses, as set forth in the first book, which I was
then able to base on fifteen years' farming experience at Chantry.
The war was over and the time had come to emphasize that we
must look to our own land to furnish health through crop and
stock, and that our land must be humus-farmed and in every way
respected.
This third work on the same subjects stands on its own as a
profession of faith allied with a complete farming programme
founded on a biological concept and involving the principles I have
long advocated; while taking over a certain amount of material
already discussed, I have described fully my present harvesting and
haymaking practices, both of them advances on already satisfac-
tory procedures, and of course can now add further evidence of the
rightness of subs oiling, sowing of deep-rooted leys, 'dovetailing'
of stock, compo sting on a large scale, achieving 'hedgerow fer-
tility' in mid-field ... and so on. I can add to the protests of many
another thoughtful person sharing my horror of certain food
processing and stock-fattening methods which, associated as they
are with lavish use of deadly sprays and short-circuiting of Nature's
intentions in a senseless worship of speed, are undermining our
health and wasting our inheritance.
Perhaps it will be safer if I say nothing now about this book
having no successor for a year or so, for the longer I farm, the
deeper is my conviction that no one can declare too often, or too
ix
PREFACE
loudly, his faith in the case for refertilization by the biologically-
achieved replacement of humus, and for adhering constantly to
the overriding principle that mankind, the animal, the plant and
the soil are interdependent.
F.S.
Chantry,
Chute,
Andover, England.
CONTENTS
NOTE OF DEDICATION page v

TO THE READER vii
PREFACE ix
AUTHOR'S FOREWORD xv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xvi
INTRODUCTION: THE BALANCE OF NATURE. BY
LADY HOWARD xvjj
PART I
I. OUR SOIL AND OUR CROPS TODAY; SIR ALBERT
HOWARD ON 'RETREAT OF CROP AND THE ANI-
MAL BEFORE THE PARASITE' 1
n. 'HUMUS AND THE FARMER'-FOURTEEN YEARS'
PROGRESS 35
m. THE SOIL ASSOCIATION 46
IV. WILL THERE BE A SECOND BLACK DEATH? 52
V. WHY THE ENGLISH FARMER DOES NOT MAKE AND
USB COMPOST 64
VI. HEDGEROW FERTILITY; COMPARISONS BETWEEN
COMPOST AND ARTIFICIALS 67
YD. MAKING A NEW PASTURE 77
VIII. LAND RECLAMATION 87
IX. HARVESTING METHODS EXAMINED 91
X. SUBSOILING 98
XI. CULTIVATIONS AND THEIR PURPOSE 120
xi
CONTENTS
XlI. COMPOSITION OF MANURES page 126
XlII. MYCORRHIZAL ASSOCIATION 133
XlV. LIVESTOCK ON THE FARM 142
XV. THE VALUE OF GRAZING; THE RELATIONSHIP OF
CLOVERS TO GRASSES; THE ABILITY OF CLOVERS
TO FEED THE GRASSES WITH NITROGEN; THE
INTERDEPENDENCE OF MANY SPECIES OF STOCK 158
XVI. MAN AND BEAST- PARASITES ALIKE 168
PART II
XVII. R EACTIONS- MEDICAL OPINION 171
XVlII. REACTIONS- VOICES FROM ENGLAND, NEW SOUTH
WALES, CALIFORNIA, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, SOUTH
AFRICA, EIRE 176
XIX. 'THE RAPE OF THE EARTH' 191
xx. WHOLE-WHEAT GRAIN (BREAD). WHEAT HEALTH
PORRIDGE; MEDICAL OPINION; BRITISH WHEAT
THE BEST IN THE WORLD 202
XXI. THE EARTHWORM- MAN'S GREATEST BENEFACTOR 213
APPENDIX I: THE SOIL ASSOCIATION 226
APPENDIX II: DR. MILTON'S RESUME OF SCIENTIFIC
WORK ARISING FROM HAUGI-lLEY EXPERIMENT
SINCE 1952 232
APPENDIX III: LETTER FROM SIR JAMES TURNER TO
'THE TIMES', 21ST JUN E 1958. LETTER FROM SIR
SAMUEL WADHAM TO 'THE TIMES' , 21ST JUNE 1958 248
APPENDIX IV: 'BABIES BORN BY THE MILLION': AN
ARTICLE IN 'THE TIMES', 12TH DECEMBER 1958,
BY SIR HERBERT BROADLEY. AUTHOR'S NOTE 251
APPENDIX V: COWS ARE 'ALMOST PERMANENT
INVALIDS', FROM THE 'FARMER'S WEEKLY', 18TH
APRIL 1958. AUTHOR'S NOTE 258
EPILOGUE 260
INDEX 263
xii
ILLUSTRATIONS
1. The author at 71 frontispiece
2. Weeber spread-eagling her field, and winning Nimble
Plate at Windsor by many lengths. (Photo: Sport and
General) facing page 14
3. Weeber winning easily-the Kingsclere Stakes at New-
bury. (Photo: Sport and General) 14
4. Photo showing 'Cat-walk' ; tops of 40-ton silos; and con-
veyors (on right of 'Cat-walk') for filling the silos 15
5. A modern grain-drying, conditioning and storage factory
on a large farm 15
6. Photo showing expanded metal silos (each holding 40
tons), emptying spouts, and underground conveyor
system 30
7. Chantry House 31
8. View from Chantry windows-'Where every prospect
pleases'. (Photo by Rouch) 31
9. Hedonist going out at Newbury to run his first race 78
10. Hedonist by Big Game ex Amy Leigh. (Photo by Rouch) 78
11. Yearling Amalia by Big Game ex Amy Leigh. Sold as
yearling for 5,000 guineas. (Photo by Rouch) 79
12. Broodmare-Amy Leigh (1948) by Bobsleigh ex Lady
Amy. Dam of Weeber (Winner of £5,000 including
Queen Mary Stakes at Ascot and sold to California for
10,000 guineas). Dam also of Hedonist, Amalia, Tene-
lee and High Lea. (Photo by Anscomb) 79
13. Yearling filly, Ben-my-chree, by Mossborough ex Lady
Amy, sold for 4,000 guineas. Half-sister to five winners 94
14. lllinois in training as a two-year-old. Winner of Seven
Dials Stakes at Brighton, Duke of York Stakes at
Kempton Park, Brighthelmstone Stakes at Brighton
xiii
ILLUSTRATION
and Brighton Cup. Total Stakes to June 14th, 1958,
£4,157. (Photo by Rouch) facing page 94
15. Yearling, Weeber, by Panorama ex Amy Leigh. Sold for
10,000 guineas to California 95
16. Yearling colt, Hedonist. 95
17. Illinois, spread-eagling his field-winning Brighton
Summer Cup (£2,000), 1958. (Photo: Sport and
General) 142
18. Illinois, spread-eagling his field-winning Brighthelm-
stone Stakes at Brighton, 1958. (Photo: Sport and
General) 142
19. Amy Leigh and her Big Game filly foal Amalia 143
20. Amy Leigh and Big Game colt foal Hedonist 143
21. Yearling colt by Tenerani ex Eugenie of Chantry-
named Teneuji (a winner). (Photo by Rouch) 158
22. Yearling colt by Mossborough ex Eugenie of Chantry-
named Mosstrooper of Chantry 158
23. Ransome's Combine: Shows the really extensive capa-
bilities of this immense machine. Weighing 41 tons it
is capable of harvesting 7 tons per hour of grain in
'good-going' 159
24. Ransome's Combine: Unloading into trailer travelling
alongside while combine is travelling and threshing.
This machine in the year 1958 represents the highest
achievement in combine manufacture 159
25. Sectional view of ground after subs oiling 190
xiv
AUTHOR'S FOREWORD
'Ill fares the land, to hast'ning ills a prey,

Where wealth accumulates, and men decay.'
GOLDSMITH
n these immortal lines of Goldsmith's, written about the year
I 1750, there is deep thinking and cryptic prescience. Is it coin-

cidence that these ancient words should be so peculiarly
applicable to the social, political and physical condition of the
land in our own time? By what divine inspiration does a poet fore-
tell the world's condition two hundred years to come? For had
these fateful words, so pregnant of dismal and dangerous fore-
boding, been written by a Kipling or a Masefield, their pointed
incidence could not have been more timely.
Today, the soil from which we spring, the source of all our
beginnings, calls aloud for urgent and earnest consideration by
every thinking man and woman.
Most writers use their 'foreword' as a space in which to express
apology for infJicting upon an unwilling world what they hope
will be read. They announce their incapacity for literary expression.
They emphasize their own unworthiness and inability to execute
their self-imposed toil.
But mine is an easy task, for I have a simple message to deliver,
and a number of elementary facts to set forth. When I have done
that my duties will be discharged.
Next to being immortalized as a man of letters or canonized as
a saint, and I hope for neither of these supreme honours, the
greatest and noblest craft that can be the lot of man is the one of
being a farmer-a tiller of the Good Earth.
F.S.
xv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
G
rateful acknowledgement is made to Professor John Pater-
son for permission to republish extracts from his Science
in Agriculture; to Doctor Hugh Hammond Bennett, Chief
of Soil Conservation Bureau, of the United States Department of
Agriculture in Washington, for his consent to my making refer-
ence to his broadcasts to South Africa on soil erosion; to Messrs.
Jacks and Whyte for data from their Rape of the Earth; to Doctor
M. C. Rayner for allowing me to quote from her scientific work
on mycorrhizal association in her Problems in Tree Nutrition; to
James Thomson of Edinburgh for the story of the Canadian brown
bear; to Sir James Turner and Sir Samuel Wadbam for permission
to reproduce their letters to The Times, and to The Times Publish-
ing Company; to Sir Herbert Broadley and to The Times and The
Times Publishing Company for permission to reproduce Sir
Herbert's article, 'Babies Born by the Million'; to Mr. A. G. Street
and the Farmer's Weekly for his comment quoted in Appendix V;
to all other writers of letters quoted; and last, but by no means
least, to Lady Howard and the Oxford University Press, for kind
permission to include a chapter from the late Sir Albert Howard's
An Agricultural Testament. Also, my especial thanks are due to
Lady Howard for writing an Introduction to this work.
F.S.
xvi
INTRODUCTION
THE BALANCE OF NATURE
T
here has been much mention lately of the Balance of
Nature; the phrase has been bandied to and fro in a some-
what meaningless way. It is assumed that this so-called
balance is at this stage of our existence a very stable one; that in
course of time it has come to comprise a set of conditions which
continue without alteration, conditions, that is, of definite adjust-
ment, each species of plant, insect, and animal occupying its
allotted space on the earth's surface and no more.
It is true that in the long run the balance of nature is quite un-
. shakeable. This follows because there are such enormous reserves
which can be called upon to restore it: unlimited gases in the
atmosphere, unlimited minerals in the rocks, unlimited capacity of
the green leaves of the surface vegetation each to set up, using the
energy of sunlight, its little individual factory for the manufacture
of plant food, which means eventually animal and human food.
There is here an insurance system without parallel.
Perhaps because this is so nature amuses herself from time to
time with some temporary violent upheavals. Reckoned against
the background of total physical existence these are very minor
phenomena; yet they might be called impressive. Sudden increases,
for example, of wild animal populations are no rare thing. Who
can explain the huge invasion of mice which suddenly overrun an
Australian farm? Sudden decreases are equally remarkable. In
Canada the lynx is known to have declined from a population of
63,000 down to 2,000 or 3,000 within a very short time; this was
the consequence of a failure in their food supply, for the snow-
shoe rabbit on which they feed had previously crashed in numbers
within a very few weeks, accompanied by a similar dying-out of
grouse, partridge and pheasant. The only explanation so far ad-
D xvii
INTRODUCTION
vanced is that a climatic cycle of between nine and ten years
brought a shortage of ultra-violet rays which carried with it a subtle
degeneration in the nutritional value of the herbage on which these
creatures feed (Professor W. Rowan in The New Biology, No.9,
Oct. 1950). Such natural cycles in animal populations are known
to primitive peoples, whose observation is more intimate than
ours.
It can be surmised that when a human influence intervenes in
this intricate aggregate of existence the results may be disconcert-
ing. The usual natural adjustments between the various species of
jackals in South Africa and the smaller ground game on which
they live have been disturbed over the last thirty or forty years by
the simple act of clearing the veldt, and in retaliation one species,
the black-backed jackal, has become a master-thief on sheep; yet
where efforts have been made to get rid of him, the ground game
has got out of hand, or when poison gas has been used to smoke
him out of his dens, so many ant bears have been killed that the
veldt has been pillaged by white ants (Mr. N. J. van der Merve in
Veldtrust, Nov. 1954). Again, it was hard on the authorities of the
City of London and of the Port of London authorities when, hav-
ing found in sodium fiuoracetate a new poison very effective in
exterminating rats in their sewers, warehouses, etc., they were
faced with the realization that this extermination had led to a
formidable rise in the mice population, an animal equally destruc-
tive and because of its smallness more difficult to check (The Times,
2nd March 1957). It is perhaps more amusing to hear that well-
meaning officials, killing crocodiles on Lake Tanganyika, have
been destroying a creature accustomed to eat predatory fish, and
these fish, free of their natural enemy, have so devastated the
numbers of the various edible species of fish that the food supply
of the natives has suffered; the slaughter of crocodiles has had to
be moderated: the crocodile is proved a friend of man! (Journal of
the Institute of Rural Life at Home and Overseas, Sept. 1957). On
the Macquarie Islands a sequence of cats imported to destroy
rabbits feeding on the native crops, of dogs imported to destroy
the cats which, having finished the rabbits, satisfied their hunger
on the sea-bird eggs which the inhabitants prized, and of the final
massacre of the yet more valuable seals by the dogs when they had
xviii
INTRODUCTION
dealt with the cats, is a story of the House that Jack built in rather
unfortunate terms (World Science Review, Oct. 1956).
Innumerable such instances of human intervention may be
quoted ranging from the trivial to the important, usually bringing
very unexpected repercussions. But the tale does not end here. It
takes on a much larger aspect when we realize that our major
interference with the balance of nature has been the propagation
and multiplication of our own species. There is no need to repeat
the constantly quoted figures of the rise in the size of human
populations, especially during the last two centuries. The change
has been rapid, dramatic, and immeasurable in its effects. It
continues.
Primitive hunting communities reckon on an area offorty square
miles to sustain anyone human family. Primitive nomadic peoples
require huge areas alternately of summer and winter pastures in
order to be able to continue their existence. Primitive agricultural
communities shift their cultivations from one cropping portion of
the jungle to another year by year, counting on the forest to re-
create what they have been compelled to occupy. The common
factor here has been that the human community has been able to
find the area it needs for its existence, because the amount of forest
or steppe open to it was as yet unlimited. Where circumstances
put a stop to this expansion, the only remedy is to proceed on the
opposite principle, namely, to limit the human population to fit
into the available space. This is done sometimes by violent means,
such as elimination of the unwanted aged as among the Lapps, or
elimination of the unwanted young as by infanticide among the
Spartans and Chinese, or more gently by restrictions on marriage
intercourse and consequent limitations of births as among the
Hunzukuts and many other peoples. Wars and disease have also
for centuries been further potent agencies for keeping down human
numbers.
But man has not remained satisfied with these uncomfortable
adjustments of himself to the universe. A stage comes when it
occurs to him to adopt yet a third course, to adjust the universe to
himself. Perhaps this is the greatest advance he has ever made. It
has been multiform in character. In order to coax more sustenance
from the limited area where he finds himself, thus avoiding the
xix
INTRODUCTION
necessity of keepin.g down his numbers, he has initiated measures
which have been extremely effective. Irrigation has given into his
hands thousands of fields of fertile land for the growing of crops,
terracing, very well known and curiously perfect in many different
quarters of the world, has allowed him to maintain steep mountain
slopes as a chain of food-producing units; elaborate legal pro-
visions, like the old Roman emphyteusis, have either tempted some
members of a community by sheer effort to evoke productjon out
of barrenness or, in the guise of a manorial system, have compelled
them to do so; colonization and land reform laws have brought
and are still bringing 'closer' settlement.
Modem husbandry has been born out of this effort, out of this
determination to get the earth to yield its utmost. As an art and a
science such husbandry resolutely contradicts the old acceptance
of primitive communities to adapt themselves to the limited areas
which they happen to find at hand with their modicum of fertility.
Its aim is at all times, not -merely to maintain, but to raise produc-
tivity. It has no ideal of restriction but one of intensification and
expansion. It believes in its ability to createJertility.
We must not altogether lose sight of this old ideal, which first
set the human race on its path towards a really worthwhile hus-
bandry, that a people living in a given area of land should be able
to live off that given area of land. Some bold thinkers still believe
that Britain could feed herself. It is at any rate satisfactory to know
that world production in agriculture is rising and is beginning very
slightly to overtake world population rise.
However, it is certain that whatever moderate success we have
in recent years attained in this direction has been most unfortun-
ately offset by some very grave disadvantages. In the desperate
pursuit of quantity quality has been disastrously sacrificed. That
same pursuit of quantity, based on doubtful methods of stimulating
soil activity and inclining more and more to dangerous mono-
cropping, has invited attacks of crop and animal disease, the
consequence of new basic weaknesses in plant and beast, which
has made agriculture most expensive. We have in our own country
the not very inspiring spectacle of a heavily subsidized industry
largely concerned with keeping what it produces alive.
To what extent is it possible to correct these unnecessary aCCOID-
xx
INTRODUCTION
paniments of what should have been a great forward movement?
We must translate all we do into modern terms. We must use
modern machinery, modern fuel for our machinery, modern
science for our information, modern propaganda to broadcast our
information. But it can be done.
It can be done on a large and on a small scale. When a govern-
ment or a community take a hand we have achievements like those
in the Tennessee Valley or the Brandywine Valley of the United
States. When individuals have the courage to lead we have world-
renowned efforts like those of the late Louis Bromfield at Malabar
Farm in Ohio or of Colonel Hale White in New South Wales,
who has doubled the productiveness of his pastures or even raised
some part of them to five times their previous carrying capacity
(Life from the Soil, by H. F. White and C. Stanton Hicks, 1953).
Less well known efforts are going on all over the world, to an
extent which is little appreciated because unknown to the expensive
journals of our State-supported Experiment Stations, which natur-
ally must devote themselves to their own scientific advances, but
which might occasionally with profit note the simple demonstrations
of the ordinary farming community. Let us quote a single instance,
which from force of circumstances is not likely to be known to the
British pUblic. Mr. Edgar D. Matthews, a South African farmer, in
the course of a most strenuous lifetime has raised his farm, Tukulu,
from a condition of waterless and derelict hopelessness, when in
the drought of 1927-8 he had to remove his family and stock and
leave only a few natives and a hen or two to get along as best
they could in a semi-starving condition, to a new state of such
fertility and above all such water-carrying capacity that in a subse-
quent appalling drought in 1945 he was able to support, feed, and
supply with water not only himself, his children and his human
labour but seventy head of cattle; his little farm 'fairly sailed
through the crisis'; his own fascinating account is written in his
book, Tukulu, the Rebirth of a South African Farm (Lovedale Press,
South Africa).
Human endeavour can, if it chooses, create a productivity which
nature, if left to herself, would not supply. This is not to 'master'
nature, a suggestion based on a false ideal. It is to recognize the
fact that, by understanding and applying observed natural prin-
xxi
INTRODUCTION
ciples-the ideal not of domination but of co-operation-a far
higher intenseness and richness of production can be secured than
could be hoped for from land in its original state. Quite possibly
idea of 'virgin' land as rich land has misled the modern agricul-
turist. There is to be sure almost always a certain accumulation
of humus in uncultivated land which can be turned to good account
when the first sod is lifted, and sometimes for quite a time there-
after, but this is the accumulation of hundreds of years and unless
something is done to replace it exhaustion inevitably follows. Then
we are back to the stage of the hunter and the nomad, and too often
have lapsed into the 'dust-bowl'.
Agriculture therefore has to be a creative industry. In modem
times its inheritance from untold generations of previous culti-
vators somewhat veils this fact. The farmer who takes over a farm
in a country like Great Britain may find his land 'run down', but
it is seldom reduced to its lowest capacity. Occasionally however,
an agriculturist has to face a stretch of land which might as well
never have been touched by the hand of man.
His task is then formidable. Perhaps it is unfair to quote my
husband's success at Indore in India in converting within a few
years 300 acres of hopelessly weed-infested undrained land into
a 'green jewel', unfair, some might say, because he could draw on
considerable government funds; yet the scientific part of this
achievement was his own and individual. No such criticism can
be levied against Mr. Friend Sykes's revolution on the Chantry
farms. What was originally so contemptuously designated 'space
out of doors' is now 'the Land of Goshen'.
The estate is on land which has a clay cap over limestone, which
is no doubt what essentially ought to appeal to a breeder of
Thoroughbreds. The reward for working off such a subsoil is that
Mr. Friend Sykes's animals have bone as fine and hard as steel
without a trace of coarseness, nor has anyone of his racing stock
ever broken down in training. Yet not many purchasers would
have welcomed the bleak aspect nor outlying fields six miles away
without water.
Systematic return of all wastes to the soil has in the course of
years raised fertility to a point where results cannot be disputed-
there has been no stinting. Enormous quantities of straw are con-
xxii
INTRODUCTION
verted into compost in the stock-yards and put out on the land,
the clearing of the yards being done twice a year-the mechanical
arrangements for this owe a good deal to Mr. Friend Sykes's use-
ful suggestions to Messrs. Ransome and Rapier in perfecting their
well-known muck-shifting crane. The greatest triumph has been
the harvesting arrangements, where Mr. Friend Sykes has been
wholly the originator. These merit the most serious inspection and
constitute an unprecedented advance in British harvesting methods.
The grain is handled from soil to sack for all processes of cutting,
collecting, threshing, cleaning, drying and sacking up. Great
capital expenditure has been necessary, but great saving in labour
costs has more than offset the outlay.
The results? Well, in this appalling summer of 1958, the wettest
within fifty years of memory, scarcely one-quarter of an acre out
of four hundred in cereals are down at Chantry, where many
farmers see whole fields flattened to the ground- and where other
breeders of Thoroughbred stock have to register 33 per cent of
barrenness, Mr. Friend Sykes can quote the breeding capacity of
his mares at 100 per cent.
The story of this impressive victory is told in these pages. It will
be realized that the Chantry estate is now self-sufficient, the large
cereal harvest on which so much care is bestowed, being fed to
stock, which in Mr. Friend Sykes's opinion is the proper use of
such a crop; passed through the stomach of the animal it brings
in the ultimate reward.
No artificials are used, with the sole exception of very small
amounts put on the most distant fields, which, being without water
as mentioned above, could not carry stock; but in the course of
thirty years not £500 has been spent on such fertilizers. Mr. Friend
Sykes does not argue this debated point; he merely does without
them and trusts to the systematic return to the soil of all the organic
wastes of the farm to carry on and raise productivity.
But animals, it is admitted, and more especially highly valuable
animals like Mr. Friend Sykes's Thoroughbred yearlings which
fetch such high prices at the Newmarket sales, are today only too
..
often the victims of disaster. The toll of disease isfnowadays a
nightmare. How can the conscientious farmer defend his beasts
from this modern menace? The tale is told of how Mr. Friend
xxiii
INTRODUCTION
Sykes's most valuable mare, Dail, was cured of contagious abortion
without any recourse to veterinary skill: she was simply put out to
grass, but what grass I Herbage was provided for her which had
never been touched by an artificial fertilizer but which had been
kept in top condition by dressings of compost. This 'nature cure'
took a long time, three years, but it was final and complete.
Mr. Friend Sykes has said a long good-bye to those innumerable
defensive measures which have become so universal in modern
farming and which are so persistently advocated by modern
officialdom. No sprays, fungicides, pesticides, herbicides, miti-
cides, acaricides, vaporizers, fumigators, hormones, injections,
sterilizations are called upon at the Chantry. The use of these
multiple preparations, most of which are of recent origin, has
become so grotesque that the farmer may be said to have reached
the stage of the medieval knight, so encumbered as to person and
steed by one piece of heavy armour after another that he found
himself unable to move if he sustained a tumble.
The increase in modern aids to farming may be measured in the
phenomenal rise in their manufacture. The latest Food and Agri-
culture Yearbook of the United Nations gives figures as follows.
The manufacture of nitrogenous fertilizers rose from 2·4 million
metric tons in 1938 to 5·4 in 1954; the manufacture of phosphoric
acid from 3·5 million metric tons to 6·7 million; of potash fer-
tilizers from 2·5 million to 5·4 million (world figures excluding
U.S.S.R.). The largest increase in usage was in Central and South
America, but there were also enormous increases in the United
States, e.g. of nitrogen fertilizers from 360,000 tons to 1,870,000
tons.
Now there is at least a prima facie case for linking up the marked
increase in crop and animal diseases over the last fifty years with
this huge increase in the use of substances designed to stimulate
and whip sensitive living organisms into an activity, which in the
. opinion of many surpasses what should be expected from them.
How far the menace of plant and animal disease has advanced is
reflected in the expenditure, both of time and of money, which the
farmer is now advised to offer in his attempts to protect what he
has produced with so much effort. Some of the facts make remark-
able reading and are difficult to take in at first sight.
xxiv
INTRODUCTION
In 1951 the United States produced enough pesticide to kill six
times the population of the world, namely, 274,844,000 lb.; of this
85 per cent was used in that country itself. Later figures show that
for DDT alone the production rose from 45,651,000 lb. in 1946 to
117,259,000 lb. in 1955, which amounts to approximately 10 oz.
per head of the population, the lethal dose for an adult man being
a little over t oz. According to a witness to the Delaney Committee
of Congress, which held a most elaborate and prolonged inquiry
into the subject, no fewer than 22,000 products of a pesticidal
character are officially registered in this country, 125 basjc chemi-
cals being used. These enormous amounts are needed for the
multiple sprayings now fashionable.
To get a really startling picture we can go to a State like Queens-
land where fruit is produced on a massive scale for export. In 1954
a case was argued before an Australian Tariff Board against further
tariff protection for the Australian manufacturers of insecticides.
The Committee of Direction, a very important body representing
Queensland fruit growers, joined with the AIl-Australian Citrus
Growers Federation to maintain that any further increase of home
insecticide prices would be an intolerable burden and cited figures
of the amount and number of sprayings necessary and normal in
Queensland fruit growing. Here they are:
Apples (Granny Smith), 'typical spray programmes'.

8 applications of DDT for fruit fly and codling moth.
3 applications of E605 for red spider, bryopia mite, etc.
1 application of copper oxy-chloride for terminal die-back and
black spot if present.
1 red oil spray for San Jose scale, eggs of red spider, mite, etc.
1 White oil spray as a follow up.
1 zinc spray for zinc deficiency.
1 borax spray for borax deficiency.
3 lime sulphur sprays for powdery mildew.
3 colloidal sulphur sprays in conjunction with the lime sul-
phur.
Total cost per acre £35 13s. 3d., or 2s. 10d. per bushel,
without labour.
xxv
INTRODUCTION
Citrus (an orchard of 1,000 trees often years of age).
1 lime sulphur spray for Maori and bud mite and white louse.
1 zinc, soda ash and copper spray for zinc deficiency and con-
trol of clack spot, melanose and scab.
1 copper spray for black spot control.
2 Metomic or lime sulphur sprays for Maori mite.
2 white oil sprays for red scale.
3 DDT sprays for fruit fly.
Total cost per acre £685 12s. 9d., or per bushel, 2s. 9d.
without labour.
Not taking into consideration a possible February oil spray
for scale and an additional Metomic sulphur spray for late
varieties.
Beans ('typical spray schedule').

4 applications of 1 per cent DDT emulsion for bean fly.
2 applications of E605 spray for red spider.
3 applications of sulphur for rust.
2 applications of 2 per cent DDT and 60 per cent sulphur for
thrips, grubs, etc.
Total cost per acre £18 6s. lOd., per pound 4·09d. (i.e.
11 per cent of cost of production).
Bananas (programme as recommended by the Queensland

Department of Agriculture for South Queensland; in North
Queensland spraying costs are 'much heavier').
4 applications of 2 per cent DDT and 2 per cent BHC for
thrips.
] application of 10 per cent BHC for beetle borer.
4 sprays of Cuprox and Agral LN for leaf spot.
Total cost per acre £23 14s. 2d., per bushel2s. 4d. without
labour, cost of which is very high as applications have
to be by hand on sloping ground where machinery
cannot work.
(Queensland Fruit and Vegetable News, 29th July 1954.)
Now this is reliable information brought forward in a court of

law by very important bodies, who hardly seem aware of the
xxvi
INTRODUCTION
terrible confession which they are making about their fruit~grow~
ing industry. But let us leave comment to the people on the spot.
The South Australian Grower (January 1957) writes:
'Year by year the hazards against fruit growing- and all other
forms of primary production-are increasing. Old pests and
diseases have never been completely eradicated and new ones are
periodically appearing. Many of them can be controlled by spray-
ing, and manufacturing chemists today can supply 'three or four
alternative mixtures for each single pest or disease. But a new pest
has the grower beaten, because the more he sprays the worse it
becomes. I am referring to rising costs. If a fruit grower today
rigidly followed the recommended spray programme for the full
control of disease, he would either go broke or have to sell his
produce at a prohibitive price .... We have reached a stage where
it is no longer economically possible to go on using chemical spray
mixtures which are costing more and more each year.' (36)
To such a pitch has the loss of nerve in this country gone that
when in 1953 the dreaded fruit fly (undoubtedly very destructive)
threatened for the first time to invade Melbourne an eviction
campaign was instituted which left nothing to the imagination. A
single apple picked from a single tree by the owner in a certain
suburb was identified as carrying larvae. After the owner had been
thanked for her care in bringing the infested apple to the authori-
ties two hundred men moved swiftly into private gardens in the
suburb, directed by experts and inspectors hurriedly summoned
from outlying districts. Men with motor-trucks visited house-
holders' gardens, stripping all fruit-bearing trees, carting the fruit
away and spraying the gardens, the spraying to be repeated regu-
larly during the summer; the Minister of Agriculture then declared
a quarantine over a radius of about a mile; this quarantine in-
cluded the prohibition to grow tomatoes, peppers, egg~plants,
melons, cucumbers and some other things, and the eradication or
spraying of all blackberry and boxthorn hedges; peelings, cores
and wastes from the bottling or cooking of fruit had likewise to be
destroyed. One wonders whether the Government compensation
offered was sufficient consolation for all this unpleasantness. And
lest this be thought to be altogether exceptional, let us note the
figure of £30 to £40 per acre per year for apple orchard spraying
xxvii
INTRODUCTION
afflicted with the 'usual range' of diseases and pests in our own
country on the authority of our leading Long Ashton Research
Station (Dr. Hubert Martin, in Agriculture, April 1950).
Operations in other countries are not dissimilar. In Germany the
cost of spraying for crops alone was estimated on the latest figures
available, those for 1952- 3, at 100 million Deutschmarks, and they
have certainly risen since then; there are 1,295 preparations offici-
ally recognized (Wolfgang v. Haller, Vergiftung durch Schutzmittel,
Stuttgart). But it is the figures in the United States of America, on
account of the vast size of this country but also because of the
intensity with which spraying is pursued, which top the scale.
Manufacture of pesticides (at wholesale level) were valued at
$160 million in 1953, at $175 million in 1954, and will probably
top $190 million when the 1955 figures are available. Export rose
from $49 million in 1953 to $79 in 1955, but the whole of the rest
of these huge amounts were used on the crops of the country itself.
In 1953 commercial fiying by aircraft to treat crops totalled
722,000 hours by 4,100 aircraft; 25 per cent was for spreading
fertilizer, but the remainder for spraying and dusting; 13t million
acres of cotton were treated with 235 million pounds of dust, and
47 miilion gallons of liquid were poured over forests and fields.
More recently in one day 196 aeroplanes sprayed 268,000 gallons
of DDT on forest lands in north Brunswick in Canada in an
effort to control the spruce worm in 1957; in all 21 million gallons
were used in this campaign, which is at the rate of 5 gallons for
every person in this Province; the total failure in that year of the
important salmon catch in the rivers of the Province is attributed
to this 'biggest spray job in history' (Natural Food and Farming,
Atlanta, Texas; Land Fellowship Letter, Toronto).
Since then an even more colossal programme has been initiated
in the United States. In a scheme to control the gypsy moth cater-
pillar 4,600 square miles in the States of New York, New Jersey
and Pennsylvania have been sprayed by official operation from the
air at a cost of $1! million (about £625,000). Today the Governor
of California has called a special session of the Legislature to
appropriate $It million to be spent for mass spraying of 9 million
acres in his State for the control of grasshoppers.
These operations are arousing a storm of protest. Cases are
xxviii
INTRODUCTION
being filed in the courts, the legal argument being that such air
action, in spraying all land including privately owned without
owner's consent, is an infringement of the citizen's constitutional
right of property. Incidentally it is worth noting that in our country
the herbage along the sides of highways is the property of the
neighbouring landowner, and that the recent obnoxious practice
of spraying these verges with weed killer, to the great destruction
of wild flora and fauna, is almost certainly illegal, unless specially
authorized by a local Act (Municipal Engineering, 1st August
1958). It would be interesting if some public-minded Britisher were
to bring a case against Local Authority on this count.
The first case brought in the United States at Brooklyn un-
fortunately went against the claimants, the judge holding that there
had been 'no clear proof' of damage; there will probably be an
appeal. The campaign of protest has been backed by such impor-
tant papers as the New York Times, and many other organs, for
the damage is quite undoubted. The President of the extremely
authoritative Audubon Society, Mr. John H. Baker, has stated:
'The use of toxic chemicals for the purpose of protecting agricul-
tural and forest crops has now skyrocketed to a point where cumu-
lative secondary poisoning of human beings and wild life, which
already exists to some extent, may become catastrophic. . . .
Insecticide hazards may well rank in seriousness with the dangers
of radio-active fallout.' The Society had already been greatly con-
cerned by the repeated spraying in 1950 of their carefully built up
wild life sanctuary in Tampa Bay, Florida; there were five sprayings
in 1950 about one month apart, and eleven in 1951, the object being
the elimination of mosquitoes. Wild life was almost wiped out,
fish, crabs, birds, insects dying by the thousand; the mosquitoes
developed resistance, and profited by the destruction of their
natural enemies.
What a state of affairs is this! Can we really join the modern
scientists in their vainglorious declarations of having drenched our
planet in compounds so venomous that the remedies of fifty years
ago, even those admittedly poisonous like nicotine, were by com-
parison life-giving elixirs? For the special feature of the most
recent of the modern insecticides, fungicides, etc., is their deadly
nature, deadly that is, to mammals, which means both stock and
xxix
INTRODUCT~ON
humans. This is only to be expected, seeing that they are a legacy

from the poison gas researches of the last world war,
On this point there has been complete honesty on the part of the
scientists and their official superiors and any number of warnings,
together with a regrettable carelessness on the part of users.
In our own country there has been a government inquiry, fol-
lowed by some preliminary legislation, making it obligatory on
employers to see that certain precautions are taken. In other coun-
tries there does not seem to be legislation, and it is, moreover, held
that the skull and crossbones conscientiously printed on the poison
containers in the United States have ceased to be deterrent. In
any case, the precautions which seem necessary are more than
human patience can endure. The tractors which draw the spraying
machines should have gas-proof cabs for the driver. The protec-
tive clothing to be worn includes rubber boots, rubber gloves, an
overall with hood, eye-shield or gas mask; the rubber should be
natural, not synthetic, the clothes frequently laundered, the gas-
proof cab frequently tested, local doctors should be advised to
keep on hand the needed antidotes. Complete protection would
only be given by completely impervious clothing, but in the heat
of June (when most spraying takes place) no man could wear such
clothing and not collapse; indeed, it is certain that more than one
death has been due to the fact that the worker was unwilling to
wear the garments provided owing to their discomfort (Toxic
Chemicals in Agriculture, Report of the Working Party, 1951,
Code 24-190). It is not usual in this country for an ordinary
agricultural worker to undertake this work, which is commonly
done by contractors employing a specially trained staff. In other
countries the work is frequently done by the farmer himself.
The total number offatalities throughout the world is not known
and never will be known. In our country there have been seven
deaths of agricultural workers from DNC poisoning between 1946
and the date of the official inquiry in 1951 (Report of the Working
Party, as above); since then two more deaths have been reported
in Jersey and Guernsey, in each case the worker not wearing the
full protective clothing. There have been a number of deaths in
Australia, so disquieting as to cause the Director of Industrial
Medicine in Queensland to raise the question as to whether the use
xxx
INTRODUCTION
of certain weedicides in pineapple culture ought not to be wholly
prohibited; here it is usual for the farmer to operate himself. In
the United States of America the number of fatalities by September
1950 had already reached the terrible total of 198 cases; by that
date there had been fourteen in Brazil. What has happened elsewhere
is not known (Toxic Chemicals in Agriculture, Report of the Work-
ing Party, as above; Queensland Fruit and Vegetabl~ News, etc.).
Nor is the risk of a fatal episode really the worst risk. The use of
these powerful and dangerous agents has confronted us with a
whole series of consequential problems, investigation into which
has scarcely begun. There is the certainty that residues linger in
the soil. There is the more serious certainty that residues linger in
our food. This is highly controversial ground, and the Working
Party referred to above in its Report on the Residues in Food of
Toxic Chemicals in Agriculture would not go farther than recom-
mending further research to find substances useful in agriculture
but 'less toxic to man than those in current use'; they professed
themselves unable to trace in this country cases of fatal or non-
fatal illness from this cause (Toxic Chemicals in Agriculture,
Residues in Food. Report of the Working Party, 1953, Code 24-
190-0-53). Other countries are less cautious. Controversy is raging
in the United States; Germany has already enacted some protec-
tive legislation.
The same negative evidence of absence of fatalities is no longer
possible in the case of stock. An outbreak of the mysterious 'X'
disease in cattle in the United States in 1946 swiftly assumed such
proportions that by 1948 it had been reported in thirty-two States,
while by 1949 it was causing losses estimated at $2 to $4 millions
a year; deaths in calves less than six months old ran up to 80 per
cent, in older calves from 50 to 60 per cent and in adult cattle
up to 35 per cent. The Federal Department of Agriculture absurdly
traced this disease to an artificial wax in the lubricant of macru nery
manufacturing the pellets on which cattle are now commonly fed in
their country and warned farmers not to allow their cows to lick
the grease oifmachinery. This explanation of itself betrays the fact
that farm stock of all types are now beginning to be boosted up by
methods as repellent as they are unnatural (Wickenden, Our Daily
Poison, N.Y., 1955).
xxxi
INTRODUCTION
The introduction of hormones into farming practice has brought
a temptation to the farmer which he is unable to resist. Hormones
are not chemicals, and are not poisonous. They are natural sub-
stances of extreme potency formed in the animal body from the
ductless glands, which govern functions of the body especially the
sexual functions. Some hormones can, however, be produced
artificially and the use of these in agriculture, both for crops and
stock, has become a commonplace.
Every suburban gardener now knows that a hormone spray will
kill the daisies in his lawn; this is done not by destruction but by
overstimulation; the plant grows so unnaturally that it dies. There
may be little to be said against this. A lawn may be said- without
criticism- to be a thoroughly artificial creation and may require
artificial treatment to keep it going. Possibly the same argument
applies to crop growing. If we must have monocropping- and we
certainly must under m<?dern conditions- there is something to be
said for hormone weedicides to eliminate weeds in our cereals. The
argument against is simply that we know so little of the ultimate
effect of these agents that we may find we have been using something
which holds unknown dangers. It is at present impossible to say.
The use of hormones in feeding animals is a much more dis-
quieting aspect of a difficult subject. The indirect effect of feeding
animals off hormone-treated pastures is unknown. But there is a
certain amount of information on their direct feeding with hor-
mone-treated feed; this often takes the form of pellets introduced
into their food, as already mentioned. The practice is far advanced
in the United States, where the most detailed information is to be
found. A synthetic female hormone, diethylstilbestrol, usually
called stilbestrol, when inoculated into poultry, causes birds to
gain in weight by about one pound in every four. It is given in
the form of pellets inserted under the skin in the neck. The assump-
tion is that the neck is discarded in cooking and that no danger can
arise to the consumer, provided that an interval of six to ten weeks
elapses before the bird is marketed; this is by no means always the
case. It was stated before a Congressional Committee (the Delaney
Committee) that 30 million birds are so inoculated every year.
Investigations in 1952 and later showed very imperfect absorp-
tion of the pellets; a large number of crates of poultry had been
xxxii
INTRODUCTION
examined; there was residual silbestrol. Medical opinion was
divided as to danger to humans, but it seems certain that with this
as with other substances, notably DDT, repeated small doses are
much more detrimental than single large doses. In the consump-
tion of such a usual food as poultry repetition of dose would be
inevitable. It is an important fact that while natural hormones be-
come decomposed in the body, an artificial like silbestrol remains
unchanged. Another argument is that the added weight is not
nutritive flesh; it is merely fat, and poor fat, not rendering smoothly
but leaving great strands in the pan.
The American practice rapidly spread to the feeding of steers
and the effect on carcass grade was again not good; the meat was
of inferior quality. The whole process has been dubbed 'an eco-
nomic fraud'.
Information on the use of hormones in Great Britain is available
in an article by Mr. T. R. Preston of the Rowett Institute,
Aberdeenshire, which is one of the leading research stations on
animal nutrition in the world. The author takes pains to present
an objective point of view, refusing to associate himself either with
exaggerated claims in favour of their use or with the violent con-
demnation of them. His statements are based on experiments
carried out at the Institute.
He professes to be surprised that so much controversy has arisen
about the hormone feeding of cattle and sheep when the practice
has been in use in Great Britain for at least ten years for poultry;
but the general public has been unaware of this fact.
The experiments undertaken did not, as a matter of fact, deal
with poultry; it is, however, conceded that in poultry hormone
treatment accelerates fat. In cattle and sheep, on the contrary,
such treatment gives Jeaner carcasses. The most advantageous
results are on castrated male animals, where live weight registers
a gain of about 25 per cent. In steers protein rises by 6·7 and
bone by 9·5 per cent, fat decreasing by 3-4 per cent; in lambs pro-
tein rises by 0·6 and bone by 1·1 per cent, fat decreases by 1·2 per
cent. There are also very large gains in moisture. The total results
are advantageous, but the author agrees that certain qualities of
tenderness, flavour, juiciness and colour in the meat go with fat-
ness and that when this is reduced these qualities suffer. In intact
c xxxiii
INTRODUCTION
males hormone treatment tends to accelerate the laying down of
fat (this agrees with the American argument quoted above).
Female animals sometimes show what are known as 'side effects',
mostly of sexual alteration, which may be deleterious. Perhaps the
most significant statement made is to the effect that breeding rams
and bulls may be rendered temporarily sterile, and 'while they can
be expected to regain normal fertility, it is possible that their
breeding ability may be impaired'.
As regards the effects on humans consUming the flesh of treated
animals, the author argues that even if the consumption were 1 lb.
of flesh daily, the intake would only be one-hundredth of the
physiological dose for a man. Danger, therefore, is negligible. But
there is a disquieting rider to this verdict, namely, that supposing
there were to be continuous contamination of pasturage, soil and
water from the droppings and urine of treated animals, this might
set up a hazard to other, especially to breeding, stock, and possibly
also to human beings.
The National Farmers' Union, which is responsible for the
paper in which this article appears, makes a comment which puts
the situation in a nutshell and which may well give us pause. While
welcoming all new developments in agriculture, 'the Union feels
that there are so many risks involved in hormone administration
that until further research work has been done no final judgment
can be made' (The British Farmer, 1st March 1958).
There is no doubt that in allowing or urging farmers to use
such powerful substances with such lighthearted carelessness a
very dangerous situation has been created. Science is not at fault,
as is shown by Mr. Preston's careful pronouncements. Scientists
do not profess to be able to say as yet a great deal about these
extraordinary agents; they are used sparingly in medicine and
always under control.
Would it not be better to safeguard the well-being of our crops
and above all of our animals by following the organic method of
feeding the life of the soil with the wastes of the farm, relying on
our sure knowledge that this first fundamental process will supply
to the micro-organisms of the soil all they need to pass on to the
plant, and the plant to the animal: to be content with this chain of
richness, which if properly initiated and maintained, will give us, as
at the Chantry farms, our Land of Goshen? LOUISE E. HOWARD.
September 1958 xxxiv
PART I
CHAPTER I
OUR SOIL AND OUR CROPS TODAY
cently, a visitor from Victoria, Australia, came to Chan-
R try. 'I have read both your books,l Mr. Sykes,' he said,
'and was so impressed that I determined to set a day aside
on my holiday in England to see for myself what Chantry looks
like. I took my farm in Victoria between thirty and forty years
ago. In those days we used to grow sugar-beet as our main cash
crop, interspersed with a crop of peas and beans by way of restor-
ing fertility. Sometimes the peas and beans were sold, at others
they were ploughed back into the soil. Of course we used N.P.K.
liberally, as without it the volume of our crop would have been so
disappointing and certain to show a loss. So far as I am aware, my
predecessor carried out the same farming policy, and what you
will be most interested to hear about is the condition of the land
after all this fifty years of plunder.
'We can now scarcely get our seed back. Because of lack of
adequate water supplies, stock carrying is not part of our economy.
We are not able to make farmyard muck, as you do, and the land
-our real capital-is now worthless.'
As this gentleman was conducted round our 750 acres at Chan-
try he was amazed at the crops he saw, the obvious fertility, the
bloom and health of the livestock.
'With an object lesson like this so close at hand all your neigh-
bours must be copying your methods,' he observed.
'That is not so. Our neighbours are exactly like you, Mr. Bush,'
was my reply. 'They have their economic problems, doubtless,
where the necessity to grow the heaviest possible crop- regardless
of its quality-is a pressing consideration, and artificials are used
in ever-increasing quantities, mechanization is intensified with a
1 Humus and the Farmer and Food, Farming and the Future.
1
twofold object: to displace the ever-rising cost of labour, and to
"hurry up" and cheapen the cost of production per ton of pro-
duce. Livestock is yielding its place to grain acreages-cash crops
- while the labour complement is brought lower and lower. The
present drift of labour from the land in England is about 100,000
men a year, leading to more congestion in the towns, and a steady
depopulation of tbe countryside. Every farmer will tell you that
wbat he is doing is not "good husbandry", but, says he, "I must
show a useful profit, otherwise my bank manager will call in my
overdraft. My land is poorer, I know, and am fully aware that I
am transferring money from capital account- the land- to "cur-
rent account", wbere it registers itself as a profit. It pleases my
bank manager who, of course, knows nothing of the technique of
"good busbandry", but my own position is annually worsened
because I have to pay heavy income-tax and surtax on profits I
have never made. Where it will all end I do not know. My
overdraft gets bigger, my taxes are higber, and I am becoming
poorer.'
'Further,' I said, 'the economic conditions in England, Mr.
Bush, are similar to those you have to contend with in Australia.
Labour is all the time becoming increasingly expensive. The
farm.er further mechanizes to dispense with labour. He borrows
more from his bank to pay for his new machinery. This becomes
obsolete quite soon, he replaces it by making a further capital
expenditure and increased borrowings. To meet all this he takes
more out of the land, which means more "artificials". On paper
he appears to make more profit: the banker is satisfied, the tax-
collector delighted, but the farmer knows that he is poorer. But
where is he to stop? Exactly where you have stopped, Mr. Bush.
When the good earth will respond no more.'
This story bas been told and retold at Chantry by visitors many
times; by people from all parts of the world. This eternal insis-
tence on the ambition 'to get more out ofless', allied with a passion
for speed, the mania of the young, and the curse of the old, are
mental and physical obsessions. If we travel, we must travel fast.
When I was a boy we used to look upon it as a great treat to visit
our market town, ten miles away, once a fortnight. We used to
tumble into the governess cart, with our rugs and sandwiches, and
~
we envied no one their luxuries and comforts. Our excursion occu-
pied the whole day. We got out every now and then and walked
uphill to ease the pony. On arriving at Ripon we put the pony up
at a hostelry. Some went shopping, others to the cattle market.
At about five o'clock we reassembled and drove the ten miles home.
And what a lovely day! We felt that Royalty could not have en-
joyed a day more. But what do we do in these times?
I leave Chantry in a speedy Humber Super Snipe at 6.30 a.m.,
arrive at London Airport, seventy-five miles away, at 8.l5 a.m.
I check in, and board the South American-bound B.O.A.C.
Argonaut. I lunch at the Aquarium Restaurant, Lisbon, a thou-
sand miles away, at 1.30 p.m. After a leisurely meal a powerful
car whisks me off on a 250-mile motor journey to Castello Branco,
on the frontiers of Spain and Portugal, where I act as adviser to a
property of 40,000 acres. Am I tired? Yes, indeed I am. Do I enjoy
it? Yes, I suppose I do. Is it to be compared to a day at Ripon
Market in the old governess car of sixty years ago, with all the
repose we had in those days? No, indeed, it is not. This endless
craze for speed pervades every incident in modern life. Take the
following example:
I contracted food poisoning after eating at a restaurant recently.
I was careless about it, and in a few days was really ill, with a
temperature of 103. I was in a friend's house. They put me to bed,
and called in the doctor. He wanted to give me aspirin. 'What
for?' I inquired. 'To bring down the temperature,' he replied, with
obvious surprise. 'But why worry about that?' I observed. 'Nature
is already dealing with the crisis in her own way. To do this
effectively she has turned on the heat. Leave me to sleep, my
temperature will be normal tomorrow morning.'
The doctor was annoyed, went out of the bedroom with my
hostess, who explained, by way of apology for my bad manners,
that I was a slightly difficult old man. It was already late evening,
and during the night I had diarrhoea; and when the doctor took
my temperature next morning, it was normal. He wanted to know
what had happened, and when I had told him, he said, with
unctuous satisfaction, 'Well now, you are making very satisfactory
progress. I should not get up today. You may get up for a short
time tomorrow, perhaps about midday. The day after, you might
3
go out for an hour. Meanwhile, I am going to prescribe a medicine
for you which will put you right.'
I quietly asked what it consisted of, and he told me, M and B
and terramycin! Summoning every atom of my natural charm, in
spite of my unshaven chin, I asked, 'Do you mind my declining
to take any medicine? The crisis is passed. Furthermore, I have
lived for seventy years, almost entirely without the aid of a doctor.
I never take drugs. I don't propose to take them now. What I do
intend to do, however, as soon as you have left this bedroom, is
to go to the bathroom and make use of myoid and trusted friend
-the enema. This will wash away any trace of poison that may
still be lurking inside me, and I intend to use it several times
during the next week. At the end of that time I hope I shall feel
thoroughly well. Do you approve of that ?'
'I certainly do,' he readily conceded, but then went on, by way
of putting my ignorance to rights, 'but in these hurried and ever-
hastening days modem life does not permit us to be so painstaking
and thorough as I can see you are, and the drugs are devised as a
handier and more speedy substitute for all the troublesome prac-
tices which you employ. In fact they short-circuit Nature's own
processes, and speed up everything.'
'That may well be,' I rejoined, 'but I'm in no hurry. I prefer my
own way of doing things, even though it may take a little longer.
I feel it will be better done. You see I propose to bathe my inside,
just as I cleanse my outside skin in daily bathing.'
A week later I felt as well as I'd ever felt in my life. I wonder how
I might have fared if I had swallowed his antibiotics?
Another instance. Last year, a thoroughbred two-year-old filly
developed a small abscess outside her lips. This burst, and was
easily cleaned up by dusting with boracic powder. The trainer then
examined the filly's teeth, and observed one with a jagged edge,
and thought perhaps that that irregular tooth may have been the
cause of the abscess. He telephoned the vet and instructed him to
come and file down this tooth. This the vet did, and after doing so
he noticed the dried-up abscess and, without authority, admin-
istered an injection of penicillin. Up to this time the filly was in
the best of health. No medical attention was necessary; within
twenty-four hours the filly developed a temperature. The vet was
4
sent for, he gave another injection of penicillin, and three days
later the mare was dead. I was sent for. I cross-examined that vet
with a degree of diligence which surprised him. 'Why did you
administer penicillin without authority?' I asked. 'After I had
filed the tooth I saw the mark of the abscess, and I gave a peni-
cillin injection just "in case of",' he replied. 'Exactly. The filly
proved allergic to penicillin, she developed a temperature, and you
go and inject more of the same poison. Why did you do that?'
'To kill the effect of the first injection.'
Now, really, can you beat that? That filly was worth 2,000
guineas.
On all fours with the vet was the doctor who attended me. My
temperature was down. The danger point was passed, but he
wanted to dose me with terramycin, which, like penicillin, is a
drug. I was having none of it.
Now these are quite typical examples of life as we live it today.
Hurry, hurry, hurry. And for what? Are we stronger in constitu-
tion, or better in health? Are we any happier? Do we enjoy our
leisure so truly as we did half a century ago? Are we really better
educated, especially in all the things that matter? Is the food we
consume more flavourful? In culture are we advancing, and in the
arts, do we excel? To this endless array of queries there is but one
answer-NO. We excel in one thing only- speed. And where is
that taking us? Granted it enables me to act as Agricultural Con-
sultant to owners of something like a million acres of agricultural
land all over the world. If there were no planes travelling at 400
m.p.h. I could not do that. But am I, or the world I serve, any
better for that? I wonder.
Regard for a moment the pressure that modern life and methods
everywhere are putting upon the land. The high cost of labour
compels the farmer to mechanize intensively, and so greatly to
increase his capital outlays that his business becomes over-capital-
ized. Then, to meet interest and amortization charges, he must get
more out of the land, and he turns to artificial aids in N.P.K. His
use of these increases year by year to try and maintain a high
output and show a paper profit. The bank and the tax-collector
take the greater part of a book-keeping profit, and the farmer is
left with a depreciated main capital asset, his land, which becomes
5
worse with each year that passes. But that is not the whole
story.
Heavy applications of nitrogenous fertilizers make the crops
almost literally jump out of the ground, providing a weakened
plant, which goes down in rainstorm and wind. Furthermore, a
crop which is grown so fast has not time in which to collect all the
true food and trace elements which it needs, not only for its own
perfect nutriment and development, but also for the benefit of the
animals and men who subsequently consume it.
HYPERMAGNESAEMIA (Grass Tetany)

This is a prevailing widespread disease of dairy cattle which is
literally devastating the dairy industry. Briefly told, it is a mag-
nesium deficiency. Obviously one turns to soil analysis, and finds
there is no deficiency a~ywhere of this basic element. Then how
can the plant, which the cow consumes, display a deficiency-
which it does? The answer has been found by Cambridge. It is
this. The plant is grown with excessive supplies of artificial nitro-
gen, and in consequence grows much too hurriedly, and it has not
sufficient time in which to gather many essential trace elements
for its proper sustenance; and let it be said, magnesium is but one.
This is a very serious disease. When dairy cattle are affected it is
only a matter of hours before they die. If the vet gets there quickly
enough, and injects magnesium, he saves the beast. A neighbour
of ours lost sixteen cattle in one night-valued at £80 apiece.
This is but one small piece of evidence of a widespread disease
in cattle which can be definitely traced to a deficiency in plants,
due to the fact that the plant is not allowed to grow sufficiently
slowly, and thus collect, through its complicated root-system and
the essential mycorrhizal association, all the minerals and trace
elements that are basically essential to the building of a healthy
plant, which in turn is consumed by animal and man.
In answer to this, my critics will tell me: Things are not quite
so bad as all that. Today the expectation of life is at least ten
years more than it was a hundred years ago. If the food we eat is
so deficient, how do you account for these statistics? That great
statesman. Sir Winston Churchill, is credited with many a wise-
6
crack. Says he, for instance, 'There's a lie, a damned lie, and
there's statistics.'
Let us examine a few of these figures. White males born in 1850
had an average life-expectancy of 38·3 years, while white males
born in 1950 had a life-expectancy of 65·9 years.
These figures mean nothing except that many babies that used
to die within the first ten years of life from poor medical care, and
because little or nothing was known about infectious disease, now
survive. Study the life-table beyond the age of ten. This shows a
moderate improvement between 1850 and 1950. Then examine the
forties, and we find the life-expectancy has increased but three
years in this hundred years. At the age of 50, the improvement is
one year. At the age of 60, 70 and 80 there has actually been a
few tenths of a year decrease in life-expectancy.
When we realize the fact that medical care of all people has so
tremendously improved in the hundred years, we have a right to
expect more improvement in longevity after the age of 40 than has
been the case. These are American figures, where the general
standard of life and food supplies are higher than in England.
In U.S.A. over 10,000,000 persons are suffering from chronic
illness. 16,500,000 people were admitted to hospitals in 1949. In
the United States there are 28,000,000 handicapped and ill persons.
The elementary and blatant fact is this, that notwithstanding all
the advancement of medical science there is an enormous increase
every year in the number of people suffering from mental diseases,
diabetes, stomach ulcers, arthritis, allergy, cancer, and other de-
generative diseases. And let it not be thought that these ailments
belong only to the ageing and the aged. A recent report of the
American Medical Association concerns men killed in battle in
Korea. Autopsies were performed on 300 such men, and their
hearts were carefully examined. In 77 per cent the hearts had some
disease of the coronary arteries. The average age of these men was
22 years. This is a young group to be showing disease of the coronary
artery. Take cancer. Careful examination in America is shewing a
tendency for this disease to be increasing in the younger age groups.
In England, Wales and Scotland, there were no deaths due to
coronary thrombosis in the 1920s. By 1939 the number was enor-
mous. It is now (1958) three times as great as it was in 1939.
7
Now I maintain that 'we are what we eat'. If we eat whole-
foods, which are grown on humus-filled land, and plants by this
system of growing are therefore allowed adequate time to grow
and develop, we almost cannot be ill. Complete immunity from
disease may be unattainable, and disease, furthermore, is one of
the processes of Nature, designed to remove the weak, the infirm,
and the old. But all that admitted-and influenced much by my
own experience over seventy years-I regard it as elementary that
good health and general well-being is our rightful heritage, and
as to whether we enjoy it or not is entirely governed by the whole-
ness of the food we consume, its life-sustaining qualities, which
again are controlled by the way the soil is farmed and cared for,
and how it is refertilized, which alone determine the true food value
of the resulting plant.
THE HUNZA PEOPLE

For example, take the simple story of the Hunza People who
live where India meets Afghanistan and the Chinese Empire and
is the closest to the Soviet Republics; there, amidst a congress of
great mountains, is the Native State of Hunza. In the midst of
these huge mountain ranges is to be found the greatest folding of
the earth's surfaces, between the Hind-Kush on the west and the
Kara-Korum to the east; there, in a profound cleft, between
mountain walls from 10,000 to 15,000 feet in height, lies the
habitable part of Hunza.
Could any place be less like England, or London, which now
harbours one quarter of England's population? Is any place less
likely to give us guidance in matters of health than this peculiar
cleft between its prodigious mountain walls?
Yet this beautiful and highly cultivated sunny seven miles,
which is the heart of Hunza, may, by its very remoteness, provide
us with primary truths of health and well-being which our civiliza-
tion has either forgotten or never known.
By this time many people have seen the Hunza folk. Many
travellers have left their impressions of Hunza, where they have
collected coolies for their further journey, and where they have
enjoyed the hospitality of its famous ruler, Mir Mohammed Nazim
8
Khan. A good deal of very authentic data has been compiled about
these now world-famous people.
It is interesting, nevertheless, to observe how very thoroughly
they have preserved their remoteness from the ways and habits of
the modem world, and with it those methods of life which may
account for the truly excellent physique and bodily health which
is theirs.
All visitors, with one voice, confirm the superb robustness of the
Hunza physique. They tell us they are fearless, good-tempered,
cheerful, and possess marvellous agility and endurance.
For example, that illustrious traveller, Sir Aurel Stein, when on
his way to the sand-buried ruins of Khotan (1903) was amazed on
the morning of June 25th, to see a returning messenger who had
been sent by the Mir to the political Munshi of Tashkurghan to
prepare him for Stein's impending arrival. The messenger had
started on the 18th. It was seven complete days between his start
and his return, and in that time he had travelled 280 miles on foot,
speeding along a track from two to four feet wide, sometimes only
supported on stakes let into the cliff wall, and twice crossing the
Mintaka Pass, which is the height of Mont Blanc. The messenger
was quite fresh and undisturbed, and did not consider that what
he had done was in any way unusual.
They are an interesting yet peculiar people, almost like the
mountain ibex, which they hunt, in the ease of their gait. When
they traverse these huge distances they have such a quick light
way of passing over the ground that they can be detected at great
distances from other peoples on a mountain track. 'How can you
tell at such a distance that those laden coolies are Hunza?' asked
Schomberg of his native companions. 'By the way they walk', was
their reply.
In games the Hunza excel. As coolies for mountaineering ex-
peditions the Hunza have great reputation. They are superb
mountaineers and unequalled slab climbers.
The Hunza are first-class agriculturists. Their valley of the
Hunza river is in the main a stretch of intense cultivation, extend-
ing for some seven to eight miles along the Hunza watershed. It is
a mountain terrain of unusual beauty. There are artificial terraces
made to contain soil, where the vegetation is luxuriant. Here dwell
9
the Hunza, whose numbers were roughly calculated by Major
Biddulph in 1880 as 6,000 people. Since that census they may have
increased to some 14,000. Their occupation is mainly agricultural.
They live entirely on the produce of their mountainous land, and
have a diet which consists of wheaten bread, barley and millet, and
a variety of vegetables and fruit. They have milk, butter-milk,
clarmed butter, and curd-cheese. They have meat only occasion-
ally. They make their own wine, but alcohol they never touch.
They refertilize their lands with compost of animal manures and
wastes of every kind, which are most carefully conserved.
Sir Robert McCarrison spent seven years among the Hunza in
his official position as their medical officer. He testifies to the fact
that they lived to great age and were practically free from disease.
He says, in his Pittsburg Lecture, 'During my period of association
with these people, I never saw a case of asthenic dyspepsia, of
gastric or duodenal ulcer, of appendicitis, of mucous colitis, of
cancer. Among these people the "abdomen-over-sensitive" to
nerve impressions, to fatigue, anxiety, or cold was unknown. The
consciousness of existence of this part of their anatomy was related
solely to the feeling of hunger. Indeed, their buoyant abdominal
health has, since my return to the west, provided a remarkable
contrast with the dyspeptic and colonic lamentations of our highly
civilized communities.'
Now medical men are so accustomed to a great number of
diseases, that they cannot begin to think of a small universe-like
the Hunza-where disease is literally non-existent. McCarrison,
who studied the Hunza at first hand, so closely and for so long,
ascertained that the health, strength and complete well-being of
this wonderful people were due entirely to the food they grew, and
the wholeness of the food they ate, and the natural and unpro-
cessed eatables with which they sustained themselves.
Their study is worthy of a complete book to itself, but what
strikes me as perhaps the most wonderful feature of their really
amazing physique, is the fact that they are a race of people whose
history goes far back into antiquity. They have kept their popula-
tions low in numbers, and because of this have chosen well their
systems of sexual matings; with people so few, inbreeding must
have been rife, yet there is no physical or mental degeneracy here,
10
and all this is due to the life-giving qualities of the food they grow
for themselves, on land that is maintained in fertility by the making
of organic compost. This race of people provides the best exam-
ple of the value of humus farming and resulting natural and un-
processed foods that the world possesses.
The foregoing account of the Hunza Peoples was taken from
records of travellers and explorers in the early days. of the present
century, while the lectures of Sir Robert McCarrison were those of
some forty-five years ago. What has happened to these wonderful
people in the meantime, and how have they withstood the inroads
which modern travel and Western influences have made upon
them ?
Sixty years ago the Hunza womenfolk used to suckle their babies
for as long as three years. To Western thinking this is an uncon-
scionable time. There can be little doubt that this custom alone
contributed to two important aspects of Hunza life and health
economics. For example, such a long period of breast-feeding
would almost certainly reduce the chances of early conception of
the next baby. This kept the population within limits, as well as
building up a wonderful physique for the infant. So far as is
known the Hunza census then numbered some 6,000 people. To-
day it is said to show a population of over 22,000, and this figure
is rising rapidly. Gone are the three-year breast-feeding practices,
but because of the ease and speed of modern travel, wireless and
aviation, the Hunza peoples no longer keep exclusively to them-
selves as they did in McCarrison's day. Their own 'overspill'
population drives their young men of seventeen far away through-
out the whole of India and Pakistan. In these countries they live
the Western life, and eat the 'prepared and processed foods' which
constitute the modern diet. From time to time they return home,
and take with them diseases none of which were known in Hunza
sixty years ago. Once again, then, as in the case of the Eskimo and
the South Sea Islanders, these one-time perfect human specimens
became assailable by diseases when they had to try to sustain them-
selves on the Western diet, thus furnishing another proof of the
value of simple, straight, WHOLE-foods, especially if those foods
are exclusively grown by means of organic re-fertilization, with
generations of good husbandry.
11
This evidence seems to suggest that the world may be suffering
from two maladies. One, world over-population, so that people
cannot be adequately fed. There is not enough food in the world
to give one square meal a day to every living man. Two, the efforts
being made now in every country to increase production of food
artificially, at lower cost, at the expense of the natural fabric of
the soil. All soils are fertile in so far as they possess a sufficiency
of humus. 'A fertile soil', says Sir Albert Howard, 'is one rich in
humus.' Artificial fertilizers, augmented by poison sprays for killing
weeds and parasites, grow an increasing tonnage of food, but
without account being taken of its qualities for sustaining life-
that is the order of the day. And this state of affairs can continue
only so long as the humus lasts. When that is consumed, the soil
ceases to live, and fertility is virtually non-existent.
But starvation of the already hungry is not the only evil conse-
quence. Long before that point is reached, disease-a kind of
myxomatosis of the human kind-will have overtaken the world.
It will be disease and famine-not atomic bombs-which will deal
with the surplus populations of this planet at a date which may
not be very far distant.
The Hunza peoples offer the most recent example which points
the way, for in the space of half a century one of the strongest and
finest races of people on earth has deteriorated to a point where
Western diseases are now commonplace-all through faulty and
improperly grown food.
MYXOMATOSIS
As for this disease, I am reminded of the plague which has over-
taken several countries in many parts of the world where rabbits,
literally in millions, have succumbed to this malady.
In England and Ireland, where I have had opportunity of study-
ing it at close quarters, this ailment swept with devastating speed
throughout the land. It spread so rapidly that the Government
thought fit to pass enactments prohibiting anyone from deliber-
ately extending the complaint. This law was quite unnecessary,
for not one farmer in five hundred ever took the slightest trouble
to introduce diseased creatures to his area. The plague, of its own
12
volition, spread much too easily for need of man's assistance.
Why should it get such a stranglehold, and so quickly? None
will ever have the answer to this query, and my guess is as good
as another's. For what it is worth, this is my conviction.
Almost everywhere rabbits were a terrible scourge. They existed
in thousands, so that when this ailment overtook them, they were,
like the fourteen millions of the human population of London,
close enough together to infect each other like wild fire. The fleas
which carried the disease had new subjects close at hand to carry
forward their deadly work.
Before a subject can be attacked by a disease that subject must
be in a reduced state of health so that the invading germ or virus
has a suitable habitat in which to thrive. If, indeed, we are what
we eat, the general level of our immunity is, for all practical pur-
poses, governed by the life-sustaining qualities of the food we con-
sume. What applies to humans, equally applies to animals, in this
case the rabbit. For fifty or more years the rabbit's food provided
by the farmlands has sustained him, but if, as I am satisfied, this
food has become more degenerate with the increasing use of
artificial fertilizers and poison sprays, the rabbit's health could not
do other than suffer a corresponding degradation. Then, when that
standard is low enough, and a 'flea' carrying this plague runs riot,
there is no resistance in the rabbit, and it inevitably succumbs.
It is interesting to observe how the rabbit is faring now. As is
known, in many places he is trying to 'come back'. But he is failing
to do so. His numbers do not increase, myxomatosis is again show-
ing itself, and Brer Rabbit is going down to the count for the second
time. Hating the rabbit as much as I do, I am not sorry to see this.
But what of the much more serious lesson I seem to learn from this
demonstration of what Nature can do when she takes a hand in
the game of settling accounts with those who outrage her laws?
Is there anyone so bold as to say that one day, man will not be
assailed by some deadly and disease-spreading germ which will
wreak the same havoc with the human kind as the myxomatosis
flea has wrought for the rabbit? Could conditions be more favour-
able for the spread of this kind of trouble than the congestion in
all our great cities when the general level of health of our people
is low enough for some endemic germ to get a foothold?
13
I may be told that such a thing could not happen, with all our
medical knowledge, our vaccines, our prophylactics, and the rest.
Well, let us hope so. But if our foodstuffs are not as good as they
ought to be-and they are not-how can you stem the steady
degradation of health level which makes us subject to attack of
either Asian 'fiu, or any other complaint which may show itself?
There is but one way to stop such a chance visitation, and that is
to demand that foodstuffs should be grown organically, that anti-
biotics should be prohibited, that foods should be served to us as
WHOLE-foods and not fragmented, and that food-processing in
every phase should be prohibited by law.
Will this ever take place? No, it will not. There are far too many
people interested in the profit which comes out of disease. Their
numbers are legion. They stand in the way of food reform. The
Ministry of Health, which, by the way, might be more appositely
named the Ministry of Disease, for it does nothing to 'prevent'
disease, although a lot to 'cure' it, might be interested in this facet
of the nation's affairs; but just try them, and see what co-operation
can be got for such a constructive programme!
FLEAS AS CARRIERS OF DISEASE

A few years ago, when I was agricultural technical adviser to the
estates of the Duke of X in Scotland, His Grace and myself were
one day making a survey of a certain area of his properties. We
passed by an old disused stone quarry. This had filled with water
through years of disuse, and the local council, without the Duke's
permission, had been using it as a refuse dump. All kinds of rub-
bish had been tipped there. The smell was objectionable, and
caused both of us to stop and try to ascertain what was happening.
I suddenly became more alarmed than I ever remember being, and
he inquired what was the matter. I asked him: 'Can't you see those
rats?' 'Of course lean,' he replied with a laugh, 'what of them ?'
'Do you see their colour?' I urged with unsuppressed excitement.
'Yes,' the Duke disdainfully replied, 'they seem ordinary rats to
me; what is special about them?' I told him, horrified, that they
were BLACK RATS, that I had never seen a black rat in my life before,
and that I was under the impression that all the black rats had
14
2. Weeber spread-eagling her field , and winning Nimble Plate at Windsor
by many lengths
3. Weeber winning easily- the Kingsclere Stakes at Newbury

4. Photo showing 'Cat-walk'; tops of 40-ton ilos; and conveyors (on right of
'Cat-wa lk') for filling the ilos
5. A modern grain-drying, conditioning and storage factory on a large farm

been exterminated by the grey rat, an extermination which brought
the great plague or black death to its close. Standing there I gave
a brief recital of the cause of the great plague. The carrier of that
disease was the black rat. Through accidental importation in a
ship containing colonies of grey rats, the black rat was eventually
exterminated, and the plague with it. The end of this terrible
scourge was not a triumph of medical skill. It was due to one of
the 'balances' of nature whereby the grey rat killed the black rat,
the carrier of the flea which spread the plague to humankind.
Needless to say, the Duke got busy with the local council and
those rats were exterminated. The quarry was filled in with other
material, not the stinking refuse from the local township. How
those black rats originated I was never able to ascertain.
P.D.O. (Pyrexia of unknown origin)

During the first world war, and with the years our soldiers spent
in the trenches, a disease showed itself which gravely threatened
the well-being of our troops. This was given the familiar name of
'trench fever'. Eventually it was found to be carried by a louse.
Our soldiers, living in such appalling conditions, could scarcely
help becoming 'lousy', and then they would go down with 'trench
fever'. It was found that this louse was the 'carrier', not the
originator of the disease. Strict orders were issued that increased
cleanliness, difficult as it was to achieve, must be the general aim,
and anyone found wearing 'lousy' garments was subject to severe
punishment. Through scrapping thousands of 'uniforms' the
disease was held in check, but it remained, nevertheless, as P.D.O.
(Pyrexia of unknown origin). The point of this reference is that it
adds to our records of three great disorders that have afflicted the
world: the great plague with its black death; myxomatosis in
rabbits, and trench fever (p. D.O), all carried by fleas. It is clear
that the diseases established themselves when conditions favour-
able to them had been brought about by such factors as over-
crowding and faulty nutrition, and it is obvious to me, a farmer
of half a century's experience, that unless the level of nutrition
supplied for my animals is high, they are exposed to any ailment
that may come along. What applies to my livestock is applicable
to the human 'stock'. We all call for nutrition on a fully life-
D 15
providing standard. Such exalted food can only be grown on
'living soil'. The earth must be nourished by humus, the only
source of true fertility.
Here, of course, we stumble up against the next hurdle in the
chain of modern events- food processing. It is not merely a matter
of growing our food correctly, but the processing. In modern food-
processing many chemicals are being added to our foods. The
testing of both chemicals and their effect on our foods is most
inadequate. But before exploring this line of thought, consider for
one moment the discoveries which Doctor Weston Price has made
in seeking out people of the world who still use foods in their
natural and unprocessed state. In his investigations he visited
groups of people of many races and of widely varying climates.
The Eskimos in Alaska, the Indians in North Canada, a group of
British people on isolated islands north-west ofthe Hebrides, Swiss
in the high valleys of the Alps, Negroes in Central Africa, isolated
natives in Australia, New Zealand, and South Pacific Islands,
were all included. He completed his studies by examining the
skulls of Italians who lived before Christ, and Indians in Peru who
lived before Columbus. Doctor Price was a dental surgeon, and
always made a special point of examining the teeth. In everyone of
these fourteen instances he found uniform and virtually perfect
teeth. When families from these same groups moved to places
where they bought most of their food from the store, there was
rapid degeneration of the teeth. Resistance to tuberculosis was
much lessened, for example, when these people changed to the
modernized diet.
Another precept of my teaching (Le. Organic Farming) is the
non-use of poison sprays. Experience may prove, however, that it
may not be possible to dispense entirely with insect sprays,
although at Chantry we do not use them. Take for example the
bright leaf tobacco which is the chief ingredient in cigarettes. This
plant is especially susceptible to attack by a parasite. Lead arsenate
is the spray used to combat this. Medical faculties tell us that
arsenic is known to be closely associated with the production of
cancer. Cancer of both lungs and throat has increased in Great
Britain and America exactly in proportion to the growth of
cigarette-smoking.
16
Now to return to food processing. I will content myself by
citing but two instances, although the list is indeed extensive. For
something approaching fifty years we have used tri,nitro-chloride
to bleach our flour, and make it whiter in appearance. Only a few
years ago it was found that this white bread, fed to dogs, produced
hysteria and fits. The medical profession investigate~ this. This
chemical has now been abandoned in both England and America,
but another chemical has been substituted.
For seventy-five years we have used cumarin as an artificial
flavouring instead of pure vanilla. Only within the past few months
was cumarin sufficiently carefully examined, when it was found to
produce severe liver disease in rats. Quite recently the Food and
Drug Administration have taken it off the market.
And so I can go on- the list would appear to be endless. Then
there is the question of antibiotics.
No new book of mine would be possible if I failed to dilate upon
the now so widespread use most farmers are making of antibiotics
in the fattening of beef cattle and pigs. Nearly everybody is doing
it, including ourselves. So far as pigs are concerned, the makers of
these antibiotics-and there are many-claim that an increased
profit of 30s. per pig is possible, in addition to getting the animal
to the butcher's block so many weeks earlier, resulting in a great
saving of building accommodation, and a more rapid turnover of
capital. We have not found, in our practical tests, that a profit of
30s. shows itself. According to our figures, the profit is more like
lOs. per pig, plus quicker maturity. If you turn out 1,000 pigs in
a year this means a further £500 profit, and achieved in shorter
time. What farmer could resist economic transactions like these?
But what of the product? So far as I am concerned I definitely
do not like the flavour of the pork produced in this way; but on
the other hand, we conducted a test with several friends, when
there was a sharp division of opinion as follows. Those friends who
live in the country, and are accustomed to fresh food, and little
out of a can or packet, all hated the antibiotic pork, but the friends
from London all voted it to be more acceptable than the straight
pork. Well, you know, 95 per cent of our population live in towns
and cities, and if, indeed, they prefer the antibiotic pork, just let
them have it. We enjoy more profit-and heaven knows the farmer
17
can do with all the profit he can get-and the town consumer gets
the pork he wants. So all is well-on the surface.
In beef production we are told that a bullock can be got to the
killing stage weeks earlier, and that the increased profit is £5 per
bullock. I cannot testify to the accuracy of this statement because
I have conducted no tests, and at the moment we are out of the
beef fattening business. But butchers are complaining. They allege
that quality is seriously affected, that at times the meat goes black,
and they are apprehensive that illness to consumers may eventuate.
In a broadcast recently it was alleged by an advocate of this system
of fattening bullocks that no ill effects have yet been reported, and
that they don't expect any, and that until there are, since this
system is extensively practised in U.S.A., it is fair to assume that
no ill effects will ensue to the consumer.
What extraordinary laws there are in this country, where there
would appear to be literally nothing to deter anyone from tamper-
ing and experimenting with foodstuffs for the human kind, and
not until you actually kill someone, or cause a widespread epi-
demic, will the voice of public opinion be raised against such
practices. I wonder if our food laws don't need some revision. So
far as I am concerned I disapprove of the use of antibiotics in this
way, and I definitely don't like either pork or bacon so produced.
Then there is the matter of chickens. Now let us see what the
world is doing here. To do justice to this subject a book ought to
be written. As my space is limited, my observations must be brief.
Chickens kept out in the open, run on free range, undoubtedly
produce a better and more acceptable egg than do those kept in
confinement of any kind. But eggs, I am told, produced in this
way show no profit whatsoever, so resort has to be made to quite
a number of intensive methods, all designed to reduce costs and
increase production: 'the economic theory of put less in and get
more out'. Quality of eggs is not the governing point. In any event,
.the ignorant townsman who consumes the egg perhaps does not
know the difference between one egg and another, so his interests,
presumably, are of no account. The motto is 'more eggs per bird,
and at less cost'. So we resort to batteries, deep litter, and no end
of devices for the indoor keeping of fowls. I have tasted eggs from
most of these methods, and with the discriminating palate I
18
possess, and the true knowledge of what a 'free range' egg tastes
like, I never eat an egg when I am away from home. But the towns-
man does-he has no option-and he doesn't know the difference
between one egg and another anyway, and such a thing as the
delicious flavour of a free range egg may be quite unknown to
him. But if an egg is produced from a bird which all too often
looks as though she ought to be killed forthwith, I 'cannot think
other than that the egg she provides is just as unwholesome as she
looks. I am writing these lines on the evening of having visited a
deep-litter establishment, where in one building hens were living
under intensive heated conditions, and were laying eggs like fury;
but not one bird that I could see looked really healthy and well.
There it is. The hen farmer must make his business pay. There is
no yardstick yet available to judge the true quality of eggs. So
there is nothing that you can do about it. Antibiotics, too, are
introduced into poultry food.
My next topic is the fluoridation of water. There are four cor-
porations in various parts of England who have taken upon them-
selves to introduce fluorine to the public water supply. This is
added, I believe, in the form of sodium fluoride at one part per
million. The sponsors of this practice 'think' (they don't really
know) that will help children in the provision of teeth. They over-
look the fact-if fact it is-that it has no beneficial effect upon the
consumer of the water once past the age of nine. Now sodium
fluoride is a dangerous poison, toxic in character, and the bodily
excretions do not take all the poisons away, which means that
residues of a toxic character must inevitably accumulate in the
human system.
This impertinent attempt on the part of any council to impose
upon the community ideas and tricks which at the moment are
quite unproved, and to try to justify it on the grounds of mass
medication, is a piece of matchless effrontery which everyone ought
to take note of, and to resist while any vestige offreedom in public
opinion remains.
In the four areas where these experiments are being tried out
public opinion is riotous, and we may see these cases tried out in
the High Courts as they ought to be.
What interests me, however, is the world-wide attitude of our
19
public, who take so little personal interest in their own well-being.
They allow foods to be processed without protest, and now their
public water supplies are interfered with.
It is the duty of everyone to co-operate in these problems. We
should all take sufficient interest in our food to see that it is organi-
cally grown, without use of poison sprays, and then we should do
our best to bring about a healthy public opinion against the pro-
cessing of our foods (as far as we can). Even the urban dweller
can grow most of his own vegetables, while of his meat, milk, and
bread- and frumenty-he can demand the utmost freshness.
Another important instance in which I was personally con-
sulted might be cited. In hop-growing many years ago, one of the
largest hop-gardens in Kent discovered a disease which ravaged
acres of valuable hops. At first little regard was paid to this trouble.
The hop plants-'ills' as they are called-were torn up and burned.
New plants were set, but they too succumbed to the disease, and
the disease began to spread rapidly. Eventually the spores were
found to be wind-borne, and the ailment broke out in other hop
gardens. This is now a notifiable disease, known as 'verticillium
wilt'. How did it originate? One cannot be definite about this, but
it might have been brought about by the following factors.
For over a hundred years hops had been continuously grown
on the same ground, so that the land had become 'hop-sick'. The
growers were aware that this mono-culture was bad farming, and
anticipating troubles of this kind took measures to combat them.
They refertilized with heavy dressings of farmyard muck, but the
weight of artificials they regularly used was startling. Then they
supplemented these precautions by the application of poison sprays
of a most elaborate specification, and installed no less than eighty
miles of underground pipelines to conduct these sprays to every
part of the farm. Notwithstanding all these highly organized ex-
pedients the disease spread alarmingly, and even today-twenty-
,five years after-it has not been brought under control. I do not
propose to bore my reader with all the technicalities of this very
difficult problem, or the remedial measures I advised to deal with
it. My sole reason for making any reference to it is to draw the
general parallel and possible lessons to be learned, viz., that the
lands of the world are being pressed too hard: that 'artificials'-
20
whatever their virtues-are not a substitute for the urgent and
strict return of all organic matter to the soil, and that poison
sprays to deal with weeds and parasites cannot be advanced as a
modern scientific expedient to take the place of old-fashioned
acts of good husbandry, for example, adequate cultivations,
fallows, summer-tilling, costly though these old but ~ell-tried acts
of farming are known to be.
I quote now, from Sir Albert Howard's An Agricultural Testa-
ment, this survey of 'The Retreat of the Crop and the Animal
before the Parasite'. He wrote:
Mother earth has provided a vast organization for indicating

the inefficient crop. Where the soil is infertile, where an unsuit-
able variety is being grown, or where some mistake has been made
in management, Nature at once registers her disapproval through
her Censors' Department. One or more of the groups of parasitic
insects and fungi-the organisms which thrive on unhealthy living
matter- are told off to point out that farming has failed. In the
conventional language of today the crop is attacked by disease.
In the writings of the specialist, a case has arisen for the control of
a pest: a crop must be protected.
In recent years another form of disease-known as virus disease
-has made its appearance. There is no obvious parasite in virus
diseases, but insects among other agencies are able to transmit the
trouble from diseased to apparently healthy plants in the neigh-
bourhood. When the cell contents of affected plants are examined,
the proteins exhibit definite abnormalities, thereby suggesting
that the work of the green leaf is not effective; the synthesis of
albuminoids seems to be incomplete. With the development of
special research laboratories, like that at Cambridge, more and
more of these diseases are being discovered and a considerable
literature on the subject has arisen.
The virus diseases do not complete the story. A certain number
of maladies occur in which the apparent cause is neither a fungus,
an insect, nor a virus. These are grouped under the general title-
physiological diseases: troubles arising from the collapse of the
normal metabolic processes.
How has agricultural science dealt with the diseases of crops?
21
The answer is both interesting and illuminating. The subject has
been approached in a variety of ways, which can be briefly summed
up under the following four heads:
1. The study of the life history of the pest, including the general
relation of the parasite to the crop and the influence of the environ-
ment on the struggle for supremacy between the two. The main
object of these investigations has been to discover some possible
weakness in the life history of the pest which can be utilized to
destroy it or to protect the plant from infection. An impressive
volume of specialist literature has resulted. As the number of in-
vestigators grows and as their inquiries become more exhaustive
and tend to cover a rapidly increasing proportion of the earth's
surface, there is a corresponding increase in the volume of print.
It is now almost impossible to take up any of the periodicals deal-
ing with agricultural research without finding at least one long
illustrated article describing some new disease. So vast has the
literature become that the specialists themselves are unable to
cope with it. Most of it can only be read by the workers in abstract,
for which again new agencies have been created in the British
Empire-the Imperial Bureaux of Entomology and Mycology-
bodies which act as clearing-houses of information and deal with
the published papers in a way reminiscent of the methods of the
Banker's Clearing House in dealing with cheques.
2. The study of the natural parasites of insect pests, the breeding
of these animals, and their actual introduction whenever this pro-
cedure promises success. A separate institution for this purpose
has been founded at Farnham Royal in Buckinghamshire.
3. The protection of the crop from the inroads of the parasite.
As a rule this takes two forms: (1) the discovery of insecticides
and fungicides and the design of the necessary machinery for
covering the crop with a thin film of poison which will destroy the
parasite in the resting stage or before it can gain entry to the host;
(~) the destruction of the parasite by burning, by the use of corro-
sive liquids like strong sulphuric acid, or by germicides added to
the soil so that the amount of infecting material will be negligible.
4. The framing and conduct of regulations to protect an area
from some foreign pest which has not yet made its appearance.
These follow the usual methods of quarantine. Importation of
22
plants and seeds is prohibited altogether, introduction is permitted
under licence, or the plant material is inspected and fumigated at
the port of entry. The principle in all cases is the same-the crops
must be protected from chance infection by some foreign parasite
which might cause untold damage. As traffic by land, sea, and
air grows in volume and becomes speeded up, it will be increas-
ingly difficult to enforce these regulations. It is impossible even
now to inspect all luggage and all merchandise and to prevent
the smuggling of small packets of seed or cuttings of living plants.
Indeed, if an investigation were to be made of the personal effects
of the coolies passing backwards and forwards between India and
Burma, India and the Federated Malay States and Ceylon, it
would be seen what an extraordinary collection of articles these
men and women carry about and how frequently plants and seeds
are included. Enthusiasts in gardening often collect plants on their
travels which interest them. The population, live stock, and fac-
tories of Great Britain are partly supplied with seeds from all
over the world. By one or other of these agencies a few new pests
are almost certain from time to time to enter the country. These
quarantine methods therefore can never succeed.
More than fifty years have passed since the modem work on the
diseases of plants first began. What has been the general result of
all this study of vegetable pathology? Has it provided anything of
permanent value to agriculture? Is the game worth the candle?
Must agricultural science go on discovering more and more new
pests and devising more and more poison sprays to destroy them
or is there any alternative method of dealing with the situation?
Why is there so much of this disease? Can the growing tale of the
pests of Western agriculture be accounted for by some subtle
change in practice? Can the cultivators of the East, for example,
teach us anything about diseases and their control?
In this chapter an attempt will be made to answer these interest-
ing questions.
It is a well-understood principle in business that any organiza-
tion like agricultural research, which has grown by accretion
rather than by the development of a considered plan, stands in
need of a periodical critical examination to ascertain whether the
results obtained correspond with the cost and whether any modi-
23
fications are needed in the light of new knowledge and experience.
I began such an investigation of the plant and animal disease
section of agricultural science in 1899 and have steadily pursued
it since. After forty years' work I feel sufficiently confident of my
general conclusions to place them on record, and to ask for them
to be considered on their merits.
I took up research in agriculture as a mycologist in the West
Indies in 1899, where I specialized in the diseases of sugar-cane
and cacao and became interested in tropical agriculture. Almost
at once I discerned a fundamental weakness in the research organ-
ization: the mycologist had no land on which he could take his
own advice about remedies before asking planters to adopt them.
My next post was botanist at Wye College in Kent, where I was
in charge of the experiments on hops and had ample opportunities
for studying the insect and fungous diseases of this interesting crop.
But again I had no land on which I could tryout certain ideas
that were fermenting in my mind about the prevention of hop
diseases. I observed one interesting thing: the increase in the
resisting power to infection of the young hop flower which resulted
from pollination. This observation has since brought about a
change in the local practice: the male hop is now cultivated and
ample pollination of the female flowers-the hops of commerce-
occurs.
In 1905 I was appointed Imperial Economic Botanist to the
Government ofIndia. At the Pusa Agricultural Research Institute,
largely through the support of the Director, the late Mr. Bernard
Coventry, I had for the first time all the essentials for work-
interesting problems, money, freedom, and, last but not least,
75 acres of land on which I could grow crops in my own way and
study their reaction to insect and fungous pests and other things.
My real training in agricultural research then began-six years
after leaving the University and obtaining all the paper qualifica-
tions and academic experience then needed by an investigator.
At the beginning of this second and intensive phase of my train-
ing, I resolved to break new ground and try out an idea (which
first occurred to me in the West Indies), namely, to observe what
happened when insect and fungous diseases were left alone and
allowed to develop unchecked, and where indirect methods only,
24
such as improved cultivation and more efficient varieties, were
employed to prevent attack. This point of view derived con-
siderable impetus from a preliminary study of Indian agriculture.
The crops grown by the cultivators in the neighbourhood of Pusa
were remarkably free from pests of all kinds; such things as
insecticides and fungicides found no place in this ancient system
of agriculture. I decided that I could not do better than watch
the operations of these peasants, and acquire their traditional
knowledge as rapidly as possible. For the time being, therefore, I
regarded them as my professors of agriculture. Another group of
instructors were obviously the insects and fungi themselves. The
methods of the cultivators if followed would result in crops
practically free from disease; the insects and fungi would be useful
for pointing out unsuitable varieties and methods of farming
inappropriate to the locality.
It was possible for me to approach the subject of plant diseases
in this unorthodox manner for two reasons. In the first place the
Agricultural Research Institute at Pusa was little more than a name
when I arrived in India in 1905. Everything was fluid; there
was nothing in the nature of an organized system of research in
existence. In the second place, my duties, fortunately for me, had
not been clearly defined. I was therefore able to break new ground,
to widen the scope of economic botany until it became crop pro-
duction, to base my investigations on a first-hand knowledge of
Indian agriculture, and to take my own advice before offering it
to other people. In this way I escaped the fate of the majority of
agricultural investigators-the life of a laboratory hermit devoted
to the service of an obsolete research organization. Instead, I spent
my first five years in India ascertaining by practical experience
the principles underlying health in crops.
In order to give my crops every chance of being attacked by
parasites, nothing was done in the way of prevention; no insecti-
cides and fungicides were used; no diseased material was ever
destroyed. As my understanding of Indian agriculture progressed,
and as my practice improved, a marked diminution of disease
occurred. At the end of five years' tuition under my new pro-
fessors-the peasant and the pests-the attacks of insects and
fungi on all crops, whose root systems were suitable to the local
25
soil conditions, became negligible. By 1910 I had learnt how to
grow healthy crops, practically free from disease, without the
slightest help from mycologists, entomologists, bacteriologists,
agricultural chemists, statisticians, clearing-houses of information,
artificial manures, spraying machines, insecticides, fungicides,
germicides, and all the other expensive paraphernalia of the
modern Experiment Station.
I then posed to myself the principles which appeared to underlie
the diseases of plants:
1. Insects and fungi are not the real cause of plant diseases but
only attack unsuitable varieties or crops imperfectly grown. Their
true role is that of censors for pointing out the crops that are
improperly nourished and so keeping our agriculture up to the
mark. In other words, the pests must be looked upon as Nature's
professors of agriculture: as an integral portion of any rational
system of farming.
2. The policy of protecting crops from pests by means of sprays,
powders, and so forth is unscientific and unsound as, even when
successful, such procedure merely preserves the unfit and obscures
the real problem-how to grow healthy crops.
3. The burning of diseased plants seems to be the unnecessary
destruction of organic matter as no such provision as this exists
in Nature, in which insects and fungi after all live and work.
This preliminary exploration of the ground suggested that the
birthright of every crop is health, and that the correct method of
dealing with disease at an Experiment Station is not to destroy the
parasite, but to make use of it for tuning up agricultural practice.
Steps were then taken to apply these principles to oxen, the
power unit in Indian agriculture. For this purpose it was necessary
to have the work cattle under my own charge, to design their
accommodation, and to arrange for their feeding, hygiene, and
management. At first this was refused, but after persistent im-
portunity, backed by the powerful support of the Member of the
Viceroy's Council in charge of agriculture (the late Sir Robert
Carlyke, K.C.S.I.), I was allowed to have charge of six pairs of
oxen. I bad little to learn in this matter as I belong to an old
agricultural family and was brought up on a farm which had made
for itself a local reputation in the management of cattle. My work
26
animals were most carefully selected and everything was done to
provide them with suitable housing and with fresh green fodder,
silage, and grain, all produced from fertile land.
As the factors of time and place are important when testing any
agricultural innovation, it now became necesary to tryout the
three principles referred to above over a reasonably long period
and in new localities. This was done during the next twenty-one
years at three centres: Pusa (1910- 24), Quetta (summers of 1910
to 1918), and Indore (1924-31).
At Pusa, during the years 1910 to 1924, outbreaks of plant
diseases were rare, except on certain cultures with deep root sys-
tems which were grown chiefly to provide a supply of infecting
material for testing the disease resistance of new types obtained
by plant-breeding methods. Poor soil aeration always encouraged
disease at Pusa. The unit species of Lathyrus sativus provided
perhaps the most interesting example of the connexion between
soil aeration and insect attack. These unit species fell into three
groups: surface-rooted types always immune to green-fly; deep-
rooted types always heavily infected; types with intermediate root
system always moderately infected. These sets of cultures were
grown side by side year after year in small oblong plots about
10 feet wide. The green-fly infection repeated itself each year and
was determined not by the presence of the parasite, but by the
root development of the host. Obviously the host had to be in a
certain condition before infection could take place. The insect,
therefore, was not the cause but the consequence of something else.
One of the crops under study at Pusa was tobacco. At first a
great many malformed plants-since proved to be due to virus-
made their appearance in my cultures. When care was devoted
to the details of growing tobacco seed, to the raising of the seed-
lings in the nurseries, to transplanting and general soil manage-
ment, this virus disease disappeared altogether. It was very
common during the first three years; it then became infrequent;
between 1910 and 1924 I never saw a single case. Nothing was done
in the way of prevention beyond good farming methods and the
building up of a fertile soil. I dismissed it at the time as one of the
many mare's nests of agricultural science-things which have no
real existence.
27
For a period of eight years, I was provided with a subsidiary
experiment station on the loess soils of the Quetta valley for the
study of the problems underlying fruit-growing and irrigation. I
observed no fungous disease of any importance in the dry climate
of the Quetta valley during the eight summers I spent there. In
the grape gardens, run by the tribesmen on the well-drained slopes
of the valley, I never observed any diseases-insect or fungous
-on the grapes or on the vines, although they were planted on
the floors of deep trenches, allowed to climb up the earth walls
and were frequently irrigated. At first sight, all the conditions for
mildew seemed to have been provided, yet I never saw a single
speck. Three favourable factors probably accounted for this result.
The climate was exceedingly dry, with considerable air movement
and cloudless skies; the soil made use of by the roots of the vine
was open, well drained, and exceptionally well aerated; the only
manure used was farmyard manure. Growth, yield, quality, and
disease resistance left nothing to be desired.
The chief pest of fruit trees at Quetta was green-fly soon after
the young leaves appeared. This could be produced or avoided at
will by careful attention to cultivation and irrigation. Any inter-
ference with soil aeration brought on this trouble; anything which
promoted soil aeration prevented it. I frequently produced a
strong attack of green-fly on peaches and almonds by over-irriga-
tion during the winter and spring, and then stopped it dead by
deep cultivation. The young shoots were covered with the pest
below, but the upper portions of the same shoots were completely
healthy. The green-fly never spread from the lower to the upper
leaves on the same twig. The tribesmen got over the tendency of
these loess soils to pack under irrigation in a very simple way.
Lucerne was always grown in the fruit orchards, and regularly
top-dressed with farmyard manure. In this way the porosity of
the soil was maintained and the green-fly kept in check.
At the Institute of Plant Industry, Indore, only two cases of
disease occurred during the eight years I was there. The first
occurred on a small field of gram (Gleer arietinum), about two-
thirds pf which was flooded for a few days one July, due to the
temporary stoppage of one of the drainage canals which took
storm water from adjacent areas through the estate. A map of the
28
flooded area was made at the time. In October, about a month
after sowing, this plot was heavily attacked by the gram caterpillar,
the insect-infected area corresponding exactly with the inundation
area. The rest of the plot escaped infection and grew normally.
The insect did not spread to the other fifty acres of gram grown
that year alongside. Some change in the food of the caterpillar
had obviously been brought about by the alteration' in the soil
conditions caused by the temporary flooding. The second case of
disease occurred in a field of san hemp (Crotalaria juncea L.)
intended for green-manuring; however, this was not ploughed in
but was kept for seed. Mter flowering the crop was smothered
by a mildew; no seed was harvested. To produce a crop of seed of
san on the black soils, it is necessary to manure the land with
humus or farmyard manure, when no infection takes place and
an excellent crop of seed is obtained.
One experiment with cotton unfortunately could not be arranged
in spite of aU my efforts. At Indore there was a remarkable
absence of all insect and fungous diseases of cotton. Good soil
management, combined with dressings of humus, produced crops
which were practically immune to all the pests of cotton. When
the question of protecting India from the various cotton boll-
worms and boll-weevils from America was discussed, I offered
to have these let loose among my cotton cultures at Indore in
order (1) to settle the question whether these troubles in the U.S.A.
were due to the insect or to the way the cotton was grown, and
(2) to subject my farming methods to a crucial test. I am pretty
certain the insects would have found my cotton cultures very
indifferent nourishment. My proposal, however, did not find
favour with the entomological advisers of the Indian Cotton
Committee and the matter dropped.
At Quetta and Indore there was no case of infectious disease
among the oxen. The freedom from disease observed at Pusa was
again experienced in the new localities-the Western Frontier
and Central India.
It was soon discovered in the course of this work that the thing
that matters most in crop production is a regular supply of well-
made farmyard manure and that the maintenance of soil fertility
is the basis of health.
29
HUMUS AND DISEASE RESISTANCE

Even on the Experiment Stations the supply offarmyard manure
was always insufficient. The problem was how to increase it in a
country where a good deal of the cattle-dung has to be burnt for
fuel. The solution of this problem was suggested by the age-long
practices of China. It involved the study of bow best to convert
the animal and vegetable wastes into humus, so that every holding
in India could become self-supporting as regard,S manure. Such a
problem did not fall within my sphere of work-the improvement
of crops. It obviously necessitated a great deal of chemical work
under my personal control. The organization of research at Pusa
had gradually become more rigid; the old latitude which existed
in the early days became a memory. That essential freedom, with-
out which no progress is possible, had been gradually destroyed
by the growth of a research organization based on fragments of
science rather than on the practical problems which needed
investigation. The instrument became more important than its
purpose. Such organizations can only achieve their own destruc-
tion. This was the reason why I decided to leave Pusa and found
a new centre where I should be free to follow the gleam un-
hampered and undisturbed. Mter a delay of six years, 1918 to
1924, the Indore Institute was founded. In due course a simple
method, known as the Indore Process, of compo sting vegetable
and animal wastes was devised, tested, and tried out on the 300
acres of land at the disposal of the Institute of Plant Industry,
Indore. In a few years production more than doubled: the crops
were to all intents and purposes immune from disease.
Since 1931 steps have been taken to get the Indore Process taken
up in a number of countries, especially by the plantation industries
such as coffee, tea, sugar, sisal, maize, cotton, tobacco, and rubber.
The results obtained have already been discussed. In all these trials
the conversion of vegetable and animal wastes into humus has
been followed by a definite improvement in the health of the crops
and of the livestock. My personal experience in India has been
repeated all over the world. At the same time a number of inter-
esting problems have been unearthed. One example will suffice. In
30
6. Photo showing expanded metal silos (each holding 40 tons), emptying spouts,
and underground conveyor system
7. Chantry House
8. View from Chantry windows- 'Where everY prospect pleases'

Rhodesia humus protects the maize crop from the attacks of the
witchweed (Striga lutea). Is this infestation a consequence of
malnutrition? Is immunity conferred by the establishment of the
mycorrhizal association? Answers to these questions would ad-
vance our knowledge and would suggest a number of fascinating
problems for investigation.
THE MYCORRHIZAL ASSOCIATION AND

DISEASE
Why is humus such an important factor in the health of the
crop? The mycorrhizal association provides the clue. The steps by
which this conclusion was reached in the case of tea have already
been stated.
This association is not confined to one particular forest crop. It
occurs in most if not all our cultivated plants. During 1938 Dr.
Rayner and Dr. Levisohn examined and reported on a large
number of my samples-rubber, coffee, cacao, leguminous shade
trees, green-manure crops, coconuts, tung, cardamons, vine,
banana, cotton, sugar-cane, hops, strawberries, bulbs, grasses and
clovers and so forth. In all of these the mycorrhizal association
occurs. It is probably universal. We appear to be dealing with a
very remarkable example of symbiosis in which certain soil fungi
directly connect the humus in the soil with the roots of the crop.
This fungous tissue may contain as much as 10 per cent of nitrogen
in the form of protein, which is digested in the active roots and
probably carried by the transpiration current to the seat of carbon
assimilation in the green leaves. Its effective presence in the roots
of the plant is associated with health; its absence is associated
with diminished resistance to disease. Clearly the first step in
investigating any plant disease in the future will be to see that the
soil is fertile and that this fungous association is in full working
order. If it is as important as is now suggested, there will be a
marked improvement in the behaviour of the host once the fer-
tility of the soil is restored. If it has no significance, a fertile soil
will make no .
I have just 5btiiiii1W'l~~L'lJt1~~~
portant hum
B
Acces~ ion No .•.J..~.~ ..

OUR SOIL AND OUR. CROPS TODAY
to throw off disease. In 1935 I began the restoration, by means
of humus, of my own garden, the soil of which was completely
worn-out when I acquired it in the summer of 1934. The apple
trees were literally smothered with American blight, green-fly, and
fruit-destroying caterpillars like the codlin moth. The quality of
the fruit was poor. Nothing was done to control these pests beyond
the gradual building up of the humus content of the soil. In three
years the parasites disappeared; the trees were transformed; the
foliage and the new wood now leave nothing to be desired; the
quality of the fruit is first class. These trees will now be used for
infection experiments in order to ascertain whether the fertility
of the soil has been completely restored or not. The reaction of
the trees to the various pests of the apple will answer this question.
No soil analysis can tell me as much as the trees will.
The meaning of all this is clear. Nature has provided a marvel-
lous piece of machinery for conferring disease-resistance on the
crop. This machinery is only active in soil rich in humus; it is
inactive or absent in infertile land and in similar soils manured
with chemicals. The fuel needed to keep this machinery in motion
is a regular supply of freshly prepared humus, properly made.
Fertile soils then yield crops resistant to disease. Worn-out soils,
even when stimulated with chemical manures, result in produce
which needs the assistance of insecticides and fungicides to yield
a crop at all. These in broad outline are the facts.
The complete scientific explanation of the working of this re-
markable example of symbiosis remains to be provided. It would
appear that in the mycorrhizal association Nature has given us
a mechanism far more important and far more universal than the
nodules on the roots of the clover family. It reconciles at one
bound science and the age-long experience of the tillers of the soil
as to the supreme importance of humus. There has always been
a mental reservation on the part of the best farmers as to the value
of artificial manures compared with good old-fashioned muck.
The effect of the two on the soil and on the crop is never quite the
same. Further, there is a growing conviction that the increase in
plant and animal diseases is somehow connected with the use of
artificials. In the old days of mixed farming the spraying machine
was unknown, the toll taken by troubles like foot-and-mouth
32
disease was insignificant compared with what it is now. The clue
to all these differences-the mycorrhizal association-has been
there all the time. It was not realized because the experiment
stations have blindly followed the fashion set by Liebig and
Rothamsted in thinking only of soil nutrients and have forgotten
to look at the way the plant and the soil come into gear. An
attempt has been made to apply science to a biological problem
by means of one fragment of knowledge only.
THE INVESTIGATIONS OF TO-MORROW

The next step in this investigation is to test the soundness of
the views put forward. This has been started by composting
diseased material and then using the humus to grow another crop
on the same land. Diseased tomatoes have been converted into
humus by one of the large growers in the south of England and
the compost has been used to grow a second crop in the same
greenhouses. No infection occurred.
The final proof that insects, fungi, viruses and so forth are not
the cause of disease will be provided when the infection experi-
ments of tomorrow are undertaken. Instead of conducting these
trials on plants and animals grown anyhow, the experimental
material will be plants and animals, properly selected, efficiently
managed, and nourished by or on the produce of a fertile soil.
Such plants can be sprayed with active fungous and insect material
without harm. Farmers will then emancipate themselves from the
thraldom created by the fear of the parasite. Another step forward
will be taken which will not stop at farming.
My self-imposed task is approaching completion. I have ex-
amined in great detail for forty years the principles underlying
the treatment of plant and animal diseases, as well as the practice
based on these principles. It now remains to sum up this experi-
ence and to offer suggestions for the future.
There can be no doubt that the work in progress on disease at
the Experiment Stations is a gigantic and expensive failure, that
its continuance on present lines can lead us nowhere and that
steps must be taken without delay to place it on sounder lines.
The cause of this failure is not far to seek. The investigations
33
have been undertaken by specialists. The problems of disease
have not been studied as a whole, but have been divorced from
practice, split up, departmentalized and confined to the experts
most conversant with the particular fragment of science which
deals with some organism associated with the disease.
This specialist approach is bound to fail. This is obvious when
we consider: (1) the real problem-how to grow healthy crops
and how to raise healthy animals, and (2) the nature of disease-
the breakdown of a complex biological system, which includes the
soil in its relation to the plant and the animal. The problem
must include agriculture as an art. The investigator must therefore
be a farmer as well as a scientist, and must keep simultaneously
in mind all the factors involved. Above all he must be on his
guard to avoid wasting his life in the study of a mare's nest: in
dealing with a subject which owes its existence to bad farming
which will disappear the moment sound methods of husbandry
are employed.
The problems presented by the retreat of the crop and of the
animal before the parasite and the conventional methods of in-
vestigation of these questions are clearly out of relation. It follows
therefore that a research organization which has lost direction and
has permitted such a state of things to arise and to develop must
itself be in need of overhaul.
34
CHAPTER II
'HUMUS AND THE FARMER'-

'FOURTEEN YEARS' PROGRESS
I
should like now to make reference to the revision of my book
Humus and the Farmer.
It is fourteen years now since the first edition of this work
saw the light of day. It has met with a truly phenomenal sale, far
beyond my wildest dreams. It has penetrated into every country
in the world. Copies of it are to be found in the libraries of most
important universities. It has been separately published in other
countries, including the United States, and translated into several
languages.
Mter fourteen years, my publishers suggest that the book
should be thoroughly revised, and rewritten, so that proper note
can be recorded of changes I may have seen fit to make in the
general technique of Organic Farming, which is another name, as
everyone knows, for Humus Farming.
I gladly comply with this request for many reasons. During the
past fourteen years agriculture has seen great changes, whether
the technique practised has been organic or inorganic. These have
taken place almost entirely under the influence of economic forces.
During the Second Great War of 1939 to 1945, every commodity
in farm production was controlled, but not the appointments the
farmer had to buy. His milk, eggs, bacon, beef, mutton, grain,
sugar-beet, potatoes, etc. all had their prices settled at the Annual
February Price Review. There was no control over the ever-rising
price of tractors, and every type of equipment the farmer had to
purchase. Agricultural labour, too, became dearer, but this was
taken into account in fixing the annual prices. But what every
thinking farmer had to reckon with were the truly mammoth out-
lays of capital he had to make in order to be economically efficient
as a producer, and to make sufficient profit to pay interest on
35
'HUMUS AND THE FARMER'
borrowed money, and allow amortization as well. The technique
of farming has undergone catastrophic changes. Draught horses
for all purposes have been nearly eliminated. Tractors are the
power plants replacing the horses, and these have undergone such
change in design and efficiency that they bear no resemblance to
the tractors in use only fourteen short years ago. The fuels too
have suffered like transformation. Petrol and tractor vaporizing
oil have given way to the universal diesel fuel. The threshing
machine is superseded by the combine harvester. The seed broad~
caster is no more, the combined~manure~and~seed~drill is now the
order of the day. The 'trailer' plough is an antique implement, the
hydraulic and three-poi nt-linkage having made nearly every im-
plement a passenger on the tractor itself. Tractor trailers, with
hydraulic self-tipping mechanisms, carrying three to five tons, are
to be seen everywhere. Corn harvesting operations are now carried
out by one man driving a powerful self-propelled combine har-
vester, which cuts and threshes grain at a rate of five to six tons
per hour. This is elevated to a grain tank which, with separate
mechanism, empties itself into a five-ton trailer moving alongside,
without stopping the combine in its operations. A trailer shuttle-
service is organized to run from the harvest field to the silo-barn-
factory where grain is eventually stored in hundreds of tons.
Arriving at the bam the trailer hydraulically tips its five tons in
ninety seconds into a series of twenty-ton hoppers countersunk
into the ground, from which the grain is elevated to a large capacity
seed-dressing cleaner. Then, with elaborate drying arrangements
and mechanical grain handling, the general harvest is over. The
grain is dry and conditioned, and is introduced to the battery of
silos, each holding forty tons, where it is stored. Practically the
whole of this complicated and quite lengthy process is accomplished
without manual interference. It is absolutely essential that labour
should be reduced to a minimum, for at an average wage of over
£10 a week (wages in 1939 were 38s.) the farmer cannot afford
men performing any arduous manual labour as in the days of old.
The grinding of grain for consumption by stock is, in our case,
carried out in a separate building, where a well-planned sequence
of electrically controlled operations succeed one another, and
where no labour of 'lifting' or excessive toil is called for. This
36
'HUMUS AND THE FARMER
particular building at Chantry, with its machinery, cost over
£2,000, but it effected a saving in labour of £1,200 a year.
As a general broad policy we sell little grain as such. We grow
and harvest some 300- 400 acres per annum, but we consume
nearly all of it with our own stock of dairy cattle, pigs, thorough-
bred horses, sheep, etc. We estimate that if we sold our grain at the
end of harvest, as so many farmers are compelled to do for one
reason or another, practically right from the tail of the combine
harvester, we might average some £20 a ton for it (apart from sub-
sillies). Fed to pigs, for instance, and converted into pork, we
probably realize from £30 to £40 a ton for it, and we have all the
manure left behind with which to maintain our organic fertility at
a high level.
The really terrifying capital outlay on all this mechanical plant,
together with the necessary buildings, is one of the economic
problems with which economists are grappling. Unless the farm
is a minimum of 700 acres and upwards this array of expensive
mechanical appointments cannot be justified. Yet if the outlays
are not made, and it is a programme to produce 400 acres of
cereals a year, then the additional labour required to make good
the deficiency in mechanical handling is a necessity, and the
farmer goes broke inevitably.
Every farmer must plan his own economy, and this is bound to
vary from farm to farm. But as a broad scheme he must create a
plan where his total returns, combined with efficient handling, will
provide him a high enough over-all figure to well cover his capital
outlays. Even on our farm, which has received such detailed sur-
veillance over a long time, the results can vary, through forces we
cannot control-like weather for instance-most alarmingly.
On our expenses side we have a labour complement of £6,000
a year at current rates (with a distinct tendency to rise much fur-
ther). We have this great mechanical outlay, its maintenance, and
amortization. We are for ever seeking to reduce costs by effecting
economies. Since we turned over to diesel tractors and power our
fuel costs have been agreeably reduced. We maintain our own
workshop, but even with this, repairs and maintenance are heavy.
We never appear to reach a stage where further moneys are not
wanted for something. Capital outlays are never ending.
37
TRIPOD HA YMAKING
In view of my eloquent advocacy of the tripod for the recovery
of first-class hay and Grade 1 corn, the reader may wonder what
has happened to this technique. There can be no doubt that hay of
quality is not made anywhere in either England or Scotland by
any method which equals that made by the tripod. Although I
blush when I state it, I regret to say that we do not make it any
more. It is the old, old story. Labour at £10 a week cannot be
employed on throwing grass on to a tripod. My stud-groom nearly
wept. He begged me to make 'just enough on the tripod for the
thoroughbreds'. At first I agreed, I was so moved by his tearful
pleadings, but subsequently we made such tolerably good hay with
the pick-up baler, that for the future it must all be made by this
newer, labour-saving method. The cost is far less. The quality is
high. I demand high standards.
The success of any system of farming, however, cannot be
measured by economics alone. If food is seriously depreciated in
quality and its general life-giving capabilities, its production, by
such methods, however economical1y profitable, cannot be justi-
fied. But this problem is not easy of solution. Obviously all the
artificial fertilizer makers and poison-spray merchants would not
agree that food produced with their help was inferior to that
organically grown. On the contrary they might argue that it was
equally good, and that there was more of it. In this regard I had
an interesting experience about three years ago. My godcbild-
Pauline, one of those to whom this book is dedicated- got mar-
ried. It was a fashionable wedding, and at the reception at 'The
Old House', Windsor, I had to make a speech. There was a large
crowd. Among many distinguished guests was Sir William Ogg,
the Director of Rothamsted Experimental Station. He sought me
out, and we talked 'shop'. A conversation ensued, of which the
following salient points can be set forth. 'I have read your books,
Mr. Sykes, and am glad to meet you. There is so much in your
writings with which I am in agreement that I feel sure, if you would
broaden your outlook, you and I might see eye-to-eye all the way
down the problem of fertility and refertilization. Now there is
38
nobody anywhere who believes more in farmyard-muck than I do.
I know its virtues and capabilities, but there is not enough muck
available, while the world's teeming populations have got to be
fed, and their only hope of having anything at all in the way of
food will come by way of the use of artificial fertilizers, coupled,
where possible, with the use of farmyard-muck.'
Although he had much more than this to say, the foregoing was
the essence of his argument. I do not propose to reduce this chapter
to the pros and cons of artificials versus muck. I would prefer to
broaden my outlook and be generous-minded, and admit, to a
limited extent, that provided the artificials be few, and applied
with discretion, and used with farmyard-muck, their use may not
be seriously harmful. But this is not what usually happens. Begin-
ning with a little, the average farmer becomes careless, and applies
more artificials, and as the use of the latter increases the almost
invariable happening is that the farmyard-muck is forgotten, and
its use diminishes. This is the experience everywhere. One eminent
county agricultural administrator told me, 'During the war we had
the greatest difficulty inducing farmers to use even a small dressing
of artificials. Now we are doing our utmost to restrain the amounts
they are recklessly, and wastefully, using, and they are frequently
neglecting to make use of the farmyard-muck they make.'
In other words, the temperate drinker, who starts with a whisky-
and-soda night-cap, quite often finishes up as a three-bottle-man.
In considering this problem, therefore, I prefer the entirely per-
sonal approach, to tell my story of why I prefer to farm with
humus, and provide convincing evidence of the success of my
technique-success from two viewpoints: the health and general
well-being of all living matter, which includes the soil, plant,
animal and man, as well as the economic aspect of my husbandry.
In the first place, my initial problem is to bring life into the soil.
This task, on a well-run highly organized farm, is accomplished
by farmyard-muck or compost. With mechanical muck-shifting
equipment this is easily and effectively loaded into five-ton hy-
draulically operated tipping trailers, drawn by a modern Fordson
diesel tractor, fitted with up-to-date three-point linkage, and live
power take-off. The five-ton load is carried at high speed from the
stockyard where the muck is made to the field where it is eventually
39
to be used. Reaching that venue the driver puts his hydraulically
operated mechanism into action, and in two minutes the load is
tipped and emptied, without any hand-labour, on to a'midden'.
The digging of the muck from the stockyard, tipping, and stacking,
introduces 'air', which starts the aerobic life to work, and the
initial processes of decomposition of that muck into humus is set
going.
This 'midden', or pile of muck, is probably disturbed again in
six to eight weeks' time, when it is again mechanically dug, and
loaded into an efficient mechanical spreader, which is drawn by
and operated mechanically by the live power take-off of the Ford-
son tractor. The thorough spreading with this implement can be
so nicely regulated that the decomposed muck (or compost) is
chewed up into small fragments and a light dressing is spread upon
nearly every square inch of the field. This mechanically spread
light dressing is much more effective than the old-fashioned heavy-
hand dressing, and since much less muck per square yard is used,
the supply of muck goes much further, and covers a greater acreage.
Now what 90 per cent offarmers do not understand is that muck
should not be regarded as a fertilizer. Of course, it does contain a
certain percentage of N.P.K. (which incidentally adds to its im-
mediate chemical value) but its real value consists of the fact that
it is either humus itself, or the agency of humus, and that its
content of millions of vigorous bacterial life, reinvigorates the
existing bacterial life of the soil; the unpaid labour force of the
farm, and since their job is to break-up the particles and com-
plexities of the minerals of the soil, making them available as plant
food, the more living and active you can make the soil, the greater
will be the supply of minerals and trace-elements available as plant
food.
It is not, therefore, a mere matter of comparing N.P.K. content
of muck with that of an artificial dressing. There is no comparison
possible, for the work of the two agencies is so little alike, in fact
greatly dissimilar.
I disagree with Sir William Ogg, and maintain that artificials
ought not to be used to the exclusion of muck. They will show the
most satisfactory results when used in combination. But I go
further and claim-and this I have proved in my consultative
40
work in many countries all over the world-that unless muck is
used in conjunction with artificials, the use of artificials alone on
the land is 'the beginning and the end of the soil'.
Of course, there are many ancillary and ingenious acts of good
husbandry which I have experimented with on many estates, such
as the growing of a crop of rye or rape with artificials, and its
ploughing-in when the crop is mature. This raises the humus con-
tent immeasureably, and, if muck can be applied as a final surface
dressing, a real stimulus has been given to the land, the effect of
which will be evident for several years.
On the 6th November 1956 I received the following letter from
Jorian Jenks, the Editorial Secretary of Mother Earth the quarterly
journal of the Soil Association.
16th November 1956
HERBICIDES (WEED-KILLERS) IN FARMING

Dear Friend Sykes,
Organic farmers are generally agreed that dependence on chemi-
cal fertilizers is an indication of biologically unsound methods.
But what is our attitude towards the chemical herbicides now
being used to spray millions of acres annually, in fact widely re-
garded as an essential feature of modern farming? Do we place
them without qualification in the same category as chemical
fertilizers? If so, what reasons do we advance and what alterna-
tive methods have we to suggest for the control of weeds?
Reports from the recent British Weed Control Conference at
Blackpool confirm that even experts and enthusiasts recognize
that herbicides have serious limitations and involve some hazards.
From an organic point of view, there would appear to be four
main objections to their use; there may well be others.
(i) Since their sole object is to eliminate weed with a minimum
of time and labour, they tend to encourage short-view exploitative
farming (such as continuous cash cropping) rather than long-term,
fertility-building husbandry.
(ii) While destroying some weeds, they often encourage others;
and even the former may develop strains resistant to sprays. Thus
the indigenous flora is undergoing profound modifications at a
,oil
time when little is yet known about its ecological aspects-relation
to soil population, crop plants, animal health, etc. 'Clean' crops
and few-species grassland are, moreover, minor examples of mono-
culture. Weeds may be more useful than we think.
(iii) Residues from the sprays (and to some extent the sprays
themselves) are washed into the soil and may affect its population.
Speaking at the above Conference, Sir John Russell said that 'in
further investigations on pre-emergence treatments, it would be
interesting to see whether the herbicide had any partial sterilizing
effect on the soil, resulting in the increase of bacterial numbers and
the production of more ammonia in the soil whereby plant growth
was improved'. (Farmers' Weekly report.)
(iv) Injury to crop plants is quite a common outcome. In most
cases, they appear to recover quicldy; but very little seems to be
known yet about possible effects on the value of the crop either
for seed or for food.
In regard to chemical fertilizers, we have an effective alternative
to offer, namely a build-up of organic soil fertility. But what
alternatives have we to offer in the case of chemical herbicides?
Organic fertility can make for healthy weeds as well as healthy
crops. Are good rotations, full crops and timely cultivations
sufficient to enable weeds to be kept under control in these days of
costly hand labour?
It would be extremely helpful, both to the Soil Association and
to anyone starting organic farming, if the sixteen practising organic
farmers to whom this letter is addressed, would give us the benefit
of their experience and their views. It might then be possible to pre-
pare and publish a symposium, as was done in the case of Protein.
Since weed-spraying programmes start in the spring, it would
be an advantage if contributions reached me in time for the
January number of Mother Earth, that is by the end of this month
(November). But please do not hesitate on grounds of time. Even
a-few rough notes would be of interest and value. Might I suggest
that you write now while the matter is still in your mind?
With kindest regards,
Yours sincerely,
JORIAN E. F. JENKS,
Editorial Secretary.
42
Jorian Jenks, Esq., 17th November 1956.
The Soil Association.
Dear Jorian Jenks,

HERBICIDES (WEED-KILLERS) IN FAR;MING
I am more than ordinarily interested in your letter of the 16th,
because I happen to be rewriting Humus and the Farmer, at the
request of my publishers, at the present time, and this subject is
very much in mind because its implications may prove to be even
more far-reaching than the indiscriminate use of 'artificials' ever
has been.
As you must be fully aware, there have been several cases in our
Law Courts where claims have been made by adjoining farmers
for the damage to their crops of poison sprays used by their
neighbours. This threat has become so serious that farmers who
use these sprays have taken the precaution to 'insure' the risks.
The insurance underwriters have now 'had some', they are increas-
ing their premiums, because the claims for the present year already
run into five figures, and threaten to be in six figures quite soon.
As a consequence underwriters are 'fighting shy' of insurance of
this risk on any terms, and it may well be it can prove to be an
'uninsurable risk' before long.
A friend of mine, in the steel trade, supplies certain parts for the
machines that are used in the spraying process. Some of these
machines are actually made by the spray makers. They have either
cancelled or seriously reduced his supplies, their explanation being
that farmers are so frightened of the claims for damage by their
neighbours, a risk they cannot easily insure against, that they are
not buying the machines, which also means they are not buying the
sprays in the quantities they did.
All this is very interesting, but while it is a pointer, it really
proves nothing conclusively, and we must explore other arguments
and causes.
My own views about the use of poison sprays are very broad,
and I try to be tolerant. Personally I hate the smell of them, for
during the spring months when they are used the atmosphere
throughout England is so offensive to me, that I almost wish I
43
lived in the cities through that period. It makes me almost sick
to breathe.
First of all I will refer to my own experience in their experi-
mental use. We have tried them at Chantry once or twice, to a
small and very limited extent, and we are not impressed by their
weed-killing effectiveness. It might even be that we ought to have
used them more heavily. We carried out the makers' instructions
-to the letter-and on the score of effectiveness they disappointed
us. I cannot speak as to what damage-if any-they did to the
crops, or to the land.
On two other estates where I act as consultant we have tried
them out fairly thoroughly, and again, on the view of their effec-
tiveness in weed destruction-to say nothing of the obvious set-
back to the crop itself-we were disappointed in the result.
On the other hand, on one important property I oversee in
Essex, where peas are grown extensively, my farmer client could
not be pursuaded to try and grow his pea crop without the assis-
tance of the spray used for this particular purpose.
I really don't know where we are getting with all this, because
nobody possesses unassailable evidence of dependable pros and
cons either for their use, or for their disadvantages. It may well be,
that only over a long period shall we learn of possible mischief in
the health of plant, animal and man that may show itself.
Organically, what alternative can we suggest, as an act of better
husbandry, to substitute, and actually to improve upon, the use of
fertilizers and poison sprays?
Here we are up against the 'economics' of the period in which
we live. Twenty years ago, my average wage at Chantry was 385.
a week, now they are over £10, with every certainty that they are
not now static, even at this figure. With economic pressure like
this the farmer must mechanize and short-circuit every possible
process on his holding. He has no alternative. The use of poison
sprays-although not cheap in themselves-perhaps avoids a year
of inevitable fallow. That year the land yields no return, it is out
of production, and costing a mint of money in repeated cultiva-
tions. I know, obviously, that the fallow and cultivations are as
good as a 'coat of dung', but, even here, the farmer will actually
allow his manure to rot away 'unconsumed', in some corner, use
44
artificials, rather than face the capital costs of mechanical equip-
ment for handling dung and returning it to the land.
The only way to clean land, and maintain it reasonably free from
noxious and tiresome weeds, is fallow and repeated cultivations.
Every year we carry through a really heavy acreage in this well-
tried, but old-fashioned, technique. It literally costs a 'fortune. It
utterly spoils our 'profit'. It does add to the 'capital value' of the
land, but it deprives the farmer of very necessary cash to maintain
his current expenses.
With incessant pressure like this, farmers fly to both artificials
and poison sprays, as the only harbour of refuge in an economy
where food is regarded as the one commodity which must be
cheap. Instead of cheapness the world should be paying perhaps
twice as much for the foodstuffs they are now consuming. If they
did, subsidies would no longer be necessary, and the health of all
would be exalted. But no, the industrial and urban mentality de-
mands 'cheap food', and this is the 'trip rope' over which you fall.
Frankly, I don't know what the answer is. I am more than
satisfied that artificials and poison sprays are no substitute for
acts of good husbandry, but with an industry which is hopelessly
undercapitalized, which has a most inadequate access to easy
capital supplies, how can it produce a finished commodity-food
-which must be 'cheap'? Well, what is the answer?
With kind regards,
Sincerely yours,
FRIEND SYKES
By way of supporting Jorian Jenks's contentions, quotations

might be made from Mr. Heathcote Amory's speech made to the
veterinary surgeons in London in June 1957, at which time he was
Minister of Agriculture. Inter alia he said, that some pig and
poultry production was more akin to factory production than to
farming. It made little contribution to the long-term fertility of
our soil, or to our balance of payments problem, and he went on
to emphasize that sterner measures may have to be taken to dis·
courage production which does not make a direct contribution to
the welfare of our land. Our dominating long-term aim must be
to maintain the basic fertility of the land.
45
CHAPTER III
THE SOIL ASSOCIATION
ome eleven years ago, or rather more, I realized that Organic
S Farming, whatever its virtues as known to me who had

practised it for so long, could never become universaUy
adopted unless unassailable evidence was provided that it was not
only better, but cheaper to follow, and easier to operate than
inorganic methods in general. Labour, increasingly a problem,
quite regardless of economics, has to be reckoned with, and must
be eliminated wherever it is possible.
I therefore determined that an independent organization of a
scientific character was called for-something rather like Rotham-
sted, but whereas that institution is created to make known the
virtues of the inorganic method, the organization I visualized was
to explore-without prejudice-the virtues of both organics and
inorganics. This I respectfully suggest Rothamsted fails to do.
How can they, indeed, be utterly independent when their original
foundation came from the hands of Lawes and Gilbert, the inven-
tors of the manufacture of artificials? These benefactors not only
created Rothamsted but financed it, and left a large fund from
which it was estimated it might finance its operations for all time.
Valuable, indeed, as this endowment proved in the early days,
Rothamsted has so outgrown its original dimensions that money
from the artificial manure and chemical industry is now needed
to keep the operations of Rothamsted fully alive. In my view
Rothamsted functions in many useful ways for farming generally,
but originally and in practical effect I regard it as a first-class
showroom window for the use and sale of artificial fertilizers and
sprays.
Now by no stretch of imagination can it be claimed that Roth-
amsted is operating entirely in an independent way. What the
46
farmer needed was a disinterested research station where long-
term practical experiments could be conducted on the same farm,
side by side with each other. This was a conception, and I discussed
it with Lady Eve Balfour, Doctor Pearse, and the late Doctor
Scott-Williamson, and I found their own minds were exploring
somewhat similar possibilities. I then further discussed this with
the late Sir Albert Howard, and the late Doctor Lionel Picton of
Cheshire. Picton at once fell in with the suggestion, but Howard
would not have anything to do with it. His view was this: what
the farmers of the world need are a dozen Friend Sykes's who, of
their own conviction, follow organic farming, and their example
and results will do more than any scientific institution to convince
the rest of the world that organic farming is not only possible and
profitable, but that over the long term it is the only farming
technique to follow.
I found it quite impossible to convert him to my ideas, and to
the end of his days he declined to have anything to do with the
Soil Association which my other named friends and myself decided
to form. In an appendix I am setting forth the progress that that
Association has made during the past twelve years, and the results
that have been achieved. At this point suffice it to say that it was
ultimately decided to run an experiment on New Bells Farm, at
Haughley in Suffolk, where the farm was actually divided into
three sections:
Section 1, all organic.
Section 2, Organic and artificial.
Section 3, Entirely artificials.
I was appointed unpaid technical consultant, and the farm was
planned in the manner aforesaid. Mter a time it was eventually
handed over to the care of the eminent scientist, Doctor Milton,
under whose care-as The Haughley Research Station-it has now
been operated for several years. The latest published results are to
be found in the Appendix and, so far as they have gone, are pro-
viding the most interesting scientific evidence of the value of
organics in farming, and comparisons with the other two sections
of the experimental farm.
The Soil Association itself, of which I was one of the four
F 47
founders, has now a membership of nearly 5,000 from all over the
world, while out of it kindred associations have been founded in
many countries.
I determined, at the same time, that I would conduct my own
experiment on our own farm, and this I determined to do through
the breeding of thoroughbred horses.
In 1919 there was foaled a thoroughbred filly named 'Dail'.
She was by 'Land League' ex 'Discourse', by 'Beppo' ex 'Rhetoric',
by 'Cyllene' ex 'Gas', by 'Ayrshire' ex 'Illuminata', by 'Rosi-
crucian' ex 'Paraffin', by 'Blair Atholl' ex 'Paradigm'.
Students of thoroughbred pedigree will recognize this as a
member of the famous late Lord Roseberry famj}y, quite the most
illustrious in the Stud Book, being possessed of more classic
winners than any other family.
It was an elementary necessity that for my experimental founda-
tion I must have a mare of the bluest of blue blood. This animal
possessed this attribute.
Since we acquired 'Dail' we have never bought another mare,
and all our winners are descendants of hers. It is now thirty-eight
years ago that 'Dail' was foaled, and sticking to this line of blood,
coupled with the important fact that all her descendants for all this
time have been fed on food which has been grown by humus
farming methods, we have now something to work upon when we
contemplate the results we are now achieving.
It is my elementary contention that, given good genetics- which
is foundational- 50 per cent of the pedigree goes in at the mouth.
In other words the nutritional value of the food the animal con-
sumes is the final determining factor in any results obtained.
It is most interesting to see that each succeeding generation is
better than its predecessor, that improved constitution, stamina,
and speed are provided. The high-water mark of our efforts would
appear to have shown itself when, in 1948, we produced a chestnut
filly foal, whom we named 'Amy Leigh'. Her breeding is interest-
ing. She was by 'Bobsleigh' ex 'Lady Amy', by 'Maltravers' ex
'The Matriarch', by 'Cyclonic' ex 'Dail'.
This filly, even as a newly dropped foal, was noticeably arresting
to look at. She was quite out of the ordinary: beautifully formed,
strong and clean of limb, and bursting with health and vitality.
48
THE SOIL ASSOCI ATION
When she went to the sales at Newmarket as a yearling, she caused
much comment and received universal attention. I placed a reserve
of 4,000 guineas on her, which figure she failed to reach. The
Venezuelan Government tried to buy her after the sale, but their
figure was below what I was prepared to take, so no deal was done.
I then leased her for her two-year-old and her three-year-old
racing career. She grew into a big mare, and did not come to hand
until very late as a two-year-old when she ran a photo-finish and
was second. As a three-year-old she won two useful races, but was
photo-finished four times second, beating 'Wilwyn'. I hold the
view that she ought to have won all her races. However, as a result
of running second so often, she got into the great Autumn Handi-
cap with 7 st. 7 lb. on her back, at which weight she could not
have been beaten in the Cambridgeshire. But she never ran in that
great race, for a little time before, she tossed her rider off at exer-
cise, careered across Newmarket Heath, through a steel-spiked
fence, and put herself out of training. She was returned to Chantry
where she recovered from her injury, and was mated with that
high-class stallion, 'Panorama', and produced a filly foal, later
named 'Weeber'. This filly won three good races, including the
Queen Mary Stakes at Ascot (worth £3,500) and was later sold at
the December sales the same year for 10,000 guineas for export to
America.
The next foal, a colt by 'Big Game', is named 'Hedonist'. This
animal is the most magnificent specimen of a thoroughbred I have
ever seen, and was a winner of two races in 1957.
The third foal, a filly by 'Big Game', is named 'Amalia'. All
these foals were sold in the sale ring as yearlings and realized:
'Weeber' 4,000 guineas, 'Hedonist' 4,200 guineas, 'Amalia' 5,000
guineas. The mare foaled in filly in 1957 to 'Tenerani' (the sire of
European Champion 'Ribot').
Now I maintain that without my humus-grown food these
results would not have been realized. These animals which fetched
such high prices as yearlings were bought by trainers who have
learned through several years' experience of my stock that we are
producing thoroughbreds of unusual physical endurance and
strength. They are healthy, strong and trouble-free in training.
Veterinary bills are negligible, and almost every trainer who buys
49
THE SOIL ASSOCIA TJON
one horse from us comes again to buy another. In business that is
what is called 'a repeat order' and obviously comes from a satisfied
client. It is the purpose of thoroughbreds to win races. Ours do
win races, and very often many races too. For instance 'Chanter',
winner of eight races; 'His Reverence', winner of eight races;
'Statesman', winner of six races (and third in the Derby); 'Robin
0' Chantry', winner of nine races; 'Hunza', winner of seven races;
'Eastern View', winner of fifteen races. All, and many more of
lesser distinction, reared on humus-grown food.
It is quite true that these animals, genetically, had much to
recommend them, but I am quite sure that without our own home-
produced food these results would definitely not have been forth-
coming. Now, please read carefully. These practical results have
been achieved in racing, where the competition is really intense,
and add to them the scientifically recorded evidence being ob-
tained at the Haugbley Research Station, and can anyone doubt
that in both theory and practice Organic Farming has something
to recommend it?
But this is not our complete livestock story. We run a large herd
of Guernsey cattle, up to some 150 all told. Our incidence of
disease is negligible. Our standard of health is of the highest, while
the product, our milk, ranks among the best in England. Our total
solids average well and when the day arrives when milk is sold
on quality-a day we long and pray for-we shall have no qualms.
Perhaps we shall then come into our own for the quality of our
produce.
Again we produce a large number of porkers every year. These
are sold through various organizations-selling arrangements
which are changing a good deal at present-and we find buyers
waiting for our pigs, and bidding often £1 a head more for them
than they pay for other pigs on the point of killing.
Surely all this abundant evidence of quality, which means
health, ought to be convincing to most thinking farmers.
And when it comes to the operational side of our farming
technique, here, I must admit, we plough several times when most
farmers, with their artificials, only plough once. And when it
comes to 'land cleaning', we spend much time and money in
getting our land as free from such noxious weeds as couch by
50
THE SOIL ASSOCIA TlON
repeated cultivations under the influence of the dry weather of
spring and a hot sun. In tbis way we thoroughly oxygenate the
soil through aeration, and we bring into life that series of bacteria
wbich are known and classified as aerobic, instead of the anaerobic,
ofwbich we do not want too many. By acts of good husbandry like
these we do away with the need to apply fertilizers and poison
sprays. We can do without both, and the weight of our crops
generally, I believe, may compare favourably with what may be
obtained from similar land under artificials alone, and perhaps
exceed such weights. I am more than sure, however, that artificials
alone in the absence of any organics can lead to only one end, and
that is the degeneration of the soil.
51
CHAPTER IV
WILL THERE BE A SECOND BLACK DEATH?
began farming over thirty years ago with a basic interest in
I Friesian cattle and Berkshire pigs. By 1923 our herd of Friesian

cattle in the show-yard and in milk production ranked with
the best in the country. Most of our foundation stock were the
winners of the famous Soo-guinea Silcock Cup, and later we won
the Makbar Gold Cup for the best herd of dairy cattle in the
counties of Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Oxfordshire. At the
Royal Agricultural Society of England Show, at the Royal Coun-
ties, at the Bath and West of England, at the Great Yorkshire
Show, at the Royal Lancashire Show, at the London Dairy Show
our stock was usually well to the fore. 'Kingswood Ceres Daisy',
for some time the European champion, who gave 6,600 gallons of
milk with her first three calves, was in our herd. In Berkshire pigs
we bred and exhibited the famous sow 'Richings Beauty 1st',
who won the supreme championship at the Royal Show at
Leicester in 1924. For years breeders from all over the world
sought descendants from this animal. It was an interesting thing
in those days to attend the pedigree Berkshire pig sales and to
observe how punctilious were the auctioneers to refer to the fact
that this or that pig were descendants from the Royal Champion,
'Richings Beauty 1st'.
Encouraged by these and many other successes we embarked
upon the breeding of thoroughbred horses and again fortune
srDiled on our efforts. We were lucky indeed to breed such horses
as 'Statesman' and 'Solicitor-General', both of them by 'Bland-
ford' ex 'Dail', and 'His Reverence', by 'Duncan Grey' ex 'Rever-
entia'; but I must not allow myself to digress into the fascinating
subject of horse-breeding.
The long run of achievement in livestock production and show-
52
ing which my two brothers and I had enjoyed came to an end with
dramatic suddenness. The Ministry of Agriculture had been made
aware by medical and public opinion that all was not well with
the nation's milk supply, and by way of grading up the dairy cattle
the first Accredited Milk Scheme was established. As one of the
leading breeders we were asked by the University of Reading to
show the way to other stockmen by submitting our herd to the
Tuberculin Test. We agreed. Judge of our surprise when 66 per
cent reacted- the premier herd of the three counties! What must
have been the condition of all the other dairy cattle in that
area?
This startling result gave us much food for thought, and it was
some time before we could diagnose the cause. We pedigree
breeders have a saying, '50 per cent of the pedigree goes in at the
mouth'. Therefore, we concluded there must be something amiss
with our system of feeding, and we eventually suspected that the
cow, with her four stomachs, was not a concentrated food con-
verter, but, in her natural surrounding, a consumer of 'roughage'.
Were not the highly concentrated cakes, with their well-known
stimulating abilities for the production of rivers of milk, the cause
of the decline in the health and stamina of our cattle? We thought
it over. We consulted authorities famous for their eminence. We
had produced fantastic milk records, had been accorded the highest
awards in the show-rings; but was it at the expense of the health
and constitution of the cows?
We then took a decision requiring both courage and action. We
would completely reverse our milk production policy; we would
feed the cows more normally, abandon high milk yields, and make
the health and constitution of the cattle our primary object, and
milk production secondary'. We held a dispersal sale of our valu-
able Friesian cattle, which had taken so many years to breed and
which had, in the eyes of the showman and record-breaker,
achieved so much. We then went in for Channel Island cattle, and
here good fortune again attended us in the show-yard, for we
bought as a calf 'Christmas Delight of Maple Lodge', the bull
which won the supreme championship at the 'Royal' of England
Show at Chelmsford.
But troubles seldom come singly:
53
WILL THERE BE A SECOND BLACK DEATH7
'In troubles to be troubl'd
Is to have your troubles doubl'd.'
And at this same period our most valuable thoroughbred mare
contracted the dreaded clisease-contagious abortion. An eminent
veterinarian advised her destruction. I declined the advice and
determined a treatment of my own, which was to turn the mare
out into a large paddock where no horse stock had been grazed,
where artificial manures had never been used, and where she was
condemned to live for two years eating practically nothing but
grass. At the end of this period she was examined by a competent
vet and declared clean. She was mated and later proved in foal,
and subsequently bred over the next seven years four valuable
foals, she herself living to the ripe old age of twenty-one. Here was
my first attempt to cure an allegedly incurable disease by giving
the creature nothing but grass grown on land where artificial
manures had never been applied, in other words, Nature's food
from humus-filled land.
In the early nineteen-twenties I had the good fortune to meet the
late Major Morris, of Aston Tirrold, Berkshire. He became the
trainer of my thoroughbreds, and in succeeding years I was to see
and learn much that was to shape my future agricultural policy and
practice. Morris was a man of the highest character, education and
farming knowledge. He was years ahead of his time as a grass-
grower and knew how to establish the sward for a racehorse pad-
dock such as none of his generation ever created. His experience
was not available to all; but, being both a patron and a friend, I
was privileged to learn much from him. Bone of the extreme den-
sity that is found in the cannon-bone of the deer is the object of
every racehorse breeder. This can only be obtained by growing the
right kinds of grasses, clovers and herbs on lands which are in good
living health and balance, and which have a subsoil of either lime-
stone or chalk. From Morris I learned those elementary lessons
which stood me in good stead in later years. Morris farmed some
2,000 acres of Berkshire's light downland overlying the chalk, yet
on that thin soil he grew the heaviest crops of grass and clovers I
had ever seen. Our land at Richings Park-'Rich-ings' means 'rich
meadows'-would grow good crops of potatoes, mangolds and the
54
like, and market-garden crops, but never herbage in the quantity
and quality that Morris used to grow. I determined to sell the
estate at Richings Park and find a place high on the chalk hills
where some of the practices of Morris could be tried out.
In 1934, we left Richings and in 1936 bought Chantry, Chute, in
the county of Wiltshire, the highest-lying farm on the eastern
escarpment of Salisbury Plain. Four pounds per acre was all this
land was worth; but Richings found ready buyers at £100 and
over, per acre. I took a Yorkshire farmer to see my new property
and he said, 'To think that you, who have achieved so much as a
livestock man and a farmer, could be so unwise as to buy land
like this. This is not farmland-it is just space-out-of-doors.'
Encouraging comment!
Mter killing many thousands of rabbits we settled down to
farming a real piece of England's neglected acres. The first imple-
ment I ordered was a subsoiler. The look of permanent surprise
that covered the features of the agent receiving the order was
worthy of Punch. 'Do you know, sir, in all our experience we have
never supplied such a thing. What do you want an implement like
that for in a God-forsaken country like this ?' Yes, there was a lot
of encouragement everywhere. But my knowledge of farming had
told me two things-that you cannot farm without the plough,
and that its full value can only be obtained if its operations are
preceded by those of the subs oiler. To prove this, one of many such
stories will suffice. The subsoiler broke down after only part of a
field had been done-no time to repair it, so ploughing and re-
seeding with barley followed. The few acres that had been sub-
soiled grew a splendid crop, the rest of the field practically nothing.
The next year the whole field was fallowed and subsoiled, and
wheat was sown. The crop, yielding thirteen to fourteen sacks to
the acre, was one of the best in the county. This yield was fifty-six
bushels to the acre. Subsoiling accounted for this improvement.
A new herd of Guernsey and Jersey cattle were got together and
kept on the open-air system, with a movable milking bail, which
was shifted every day and eventually travelled all over the farm. In
this way the land was uniformly refertilized by dung and urine,
and as each field has been sufficiently grazed and dunged, plough-
ing of the old turf took place, following (during war-time) with
5S
three corn crops; after this it was cleaned and laid down to a four
years' ley containing the following mixtures of grasses and legumes:
3 lb. Perennial Ryegrass 10 lb. Common milled Sainfoin
2 Cocksfoot 4 Lucerne
3 Timothy 1 Hants broad loaf clover
1 Italian Ryegrass 1 Alsike clover
1 Rough Stalked Meadow 1 S.lOO clover
Grass 2 Burnet
1 Crested Dogstail 1 Chicory
1 Meadow Fescues
12 of grass seeds 20
- a total of about 32 lb. of seed to the acre.

The details of farming technique which I have devised are im-
portant:
1. Subs oiling two feet deep.
2. Several plougbings.
3. Several harrowings.
4. Thorough land cleaning.
5. Two heavy roller rollings.
The subs oiling two feet deep aerates the subsoil and splits into
fragments the underground colloidal pan, thus opening up an
unlimited store of mineral plant food which the deep-rooting
varieties will seek in a very short time. The ploughings and other
cultivations aerate the five inches of topsoil and work down a fine
tilth, which is indispensable to a good grass establishment. The
deep-rooting plants, Sainfoin, Chicory, Burnet, Cocksfoot and
Meli10tus Alba go deep down into the earth for several feet,
bring up both minerals and moisture in abundance, and make
the sward drought-resisting under the hottest sun, while all the
leguminous plants draw copious supplies of nitrogen from the
air and make this available in the soil for the grasses. This ley
is left down four years: the first year it is grazed; the second, it is
hay and grazing; the third, hay and grazing; the fourth year it is
all( grazed, after which it is ploughed under for roots and the
sowing takes place on the upturned sod. The old turf and the
56
wastes of the livestock are transformed into humus by natural
agencies-in other words, sheet-compo sting takes place all over
the farm. Enormous weights to the acre of crops of all kinds are
grown; the next year a crop of wheat; then a clean and the sowing
of oats; and the fourth year it is sown back to the grass and clover
mixture as before. Neither farmyard muck, nor compost, nor
artificials are applied. The organic refertilization is performed by
the controlled intensive grazing of cattle, sheep and other stock,
which stock, in the four years of the ley's duration, deposit at least
twenty tons of dung and urine per acre, and this is harrowed in
frequently to secure uniform distribution. This organic activation,
coupled with the considerable root system of the ley when ploughed
under at the end of its four years, provides the land with such a
surplus of humus that one heavy crop of roots can be taken and
two or more corn crops, and there is still enough surplus humus
to re-establish the next rotation. The grass and clover seeding is
varied and heavy, but my experience tells me that this is a wise
proceeding, in so far as it smothers out in the first year most of
the weeds and secures an amazing sward in the first year of estab-
lishment. I have this year cut seventy acres of land under such a
sward, and it must have averaged from two to three tons to the
acre of hay, and this on land 800 feet above sea-level, and for
which none of my friends would say a good word when it was
bought. Good average meadow-land of the permanent grass type
seldom gives more than 15 cwt. to one ton to the acre.
I have so far dealt with the first steps in the reclamation of a
piece of worn-out land. Spectacular as are the results obtained, I
am convinced they are only the beginning, and that it is possible
to raise the fertility of Chantry still further, and to carry a much
larger head of livestock. This can be achieved by converting the
large volumes of unused straw and the other vegetable residues of
the farm into muck and then into compost. Now that the mechani-
zation of the compost heap has been achieved and the Rapier
tractor-driven muck-shifting crane has been made available, it is
possible to multiply the volume of farmyard manure by four or
five and, at the same time, improve its quality. The motto is 'Muck,
more muck, and much better muck'. Such a machine as I have
now described is at long last on the market, and has been for one
57
year in operation. Here now, all the wastes on the farm, both
vegetable and animal, are returned to the soil in the shape of freshly
prepared humus. In this way the full effects of the subsoiling, and
of the deep-rooting ley, will be obtained, and results now un-
dreamt of will be available for all to see.
When the whole of the farms of England are farmed with com-
post-and I am sufficiently sanguine to hope that one day they
will be-there is not the slightest doubt that we can grow enough
food here of every kind (excepting citrus fruits, tea, coffee and the
like, which represent a small amount in the aggregate) to sustain
the population of England.
But our experience at Chantry was not nearly so cut and dried,
or so straightforward and easy as the foregoing account might
lead a reader to believe. We bought valuable cattle and put them
on land which was couch-ridden and very infertile, and the ability
of which to sustain life was so low in the early years that food of
every kind had to ' be bought elsewhere to augment the supply of
the poor herbage. Then heavy stocking and treading began to
develop other troubles and, as always on dirty, foul, neglected
land, disease of many kinds began to show in the cattle. Con-
tagious abortion-the most devastating of all complaints, mastitis,
Johne's disease, tuberculosis, all took their toll, and before we
were through with them all we lost cattle to the pre-war value of
over £2,000 (today's value-over £8,000). The veterinary service
could help us but little. As is usual, the course followed had to be
devised by the farmer.
We decided to plough up the whole 750 acres. We determined to
rely upon home-grown food, especially avoiding all factory com-
pound foods and concentrates. Above all to apply artificials
nowhere. And after seven years of heart-breaking toil, with the
added difficulties of war-time conditions thrown in for luck, we
have (touching wood) (1) almost completely rid the farm of
disease; (2) built up a large herd of home-bred, attested dairy
cattle, now tubercle free and of a soundness of constitution to all
critical appearances such that no expert would believe that any
scourge had ever visited the farm, and (3), as each succeeding
generation of young stock is born, have unmistakable evidence of
still greater stamina and endurance.
S8
Now we didn't bargain for all tbis trouble with disease, and it
was as unexpected as it was unwelcome. Our ability to deal with
it, however, is sometbing rather remarkable. How has tbis been
done?
We have based our policy on the premises that the health of the
soil, the plant and the animal are interdependent, thai the refertili-
zation of soil-the basis of life where we all begin-is biological
rather than chemical, that this can be accomplished only by the
agencies of animal dung and urine acting upon the decaying
vegetation of the farm to form humus. That these premises are
believed to be sound is suggested by the evjdence that twice in
fifteen years we have had serious diseases of animals to deal with
and, with humility, we have dealt with them.
Sir Albert Howard wishes me to write a great deal on the subject
and to record the whole of my experiences and accumulation of
details of evidence to support the system of farming which has
now been laid down for the land at Chute, and wbich, after much
travail, is now working smoothly-and notbing short of a book
will suffice to give me the space I need to set out the facts and
results in their proper sequence and forcefulness. Here, then, if
this country in particular, and the world as a whole, are to avoid
the major catastrophes that may be lying not very far ahead, I must
set down the argument for the urgent and wider application of my
system of farming. This task is by no means easy.
Therefore, I will ask myself, what are the major lessons that I
have learned after thirty years of farming observation? They are:
(1) That the well-being of mankind is interdependent with that
of the animal, the plant, and the living soil.
(2) That a fertile soil is one rich in humus.
(3) That whenever the humus content of the soil is depleted (as
in the growing of a wheat crop), the humus must be replaced with
more humus manufactured by the biological processes, e.g. by
vegetable growth (as in grass) and by its decay, when ploughed,
accelerated and activated by the earthworms and by the micro-
organisms of animal dung and urine.
And if the world as a whole adopted these hypotheses, what
would be the result? A healthy, robust, and practically disease-free
human race; because man-who is healthy according to the food
59
he eats-would live on a healthy diet of wholesome and disease-
free milk and animal products, wholesome vegetables, and whole-
meal bread, all grown on soil that was humus-sufficient and disease
free.
And if the health of a nation is as simple as all that, why can we
not adopt my system of farming tomorrow and in five years have
a disease-free world? Because for over a hundred years the world
has laboured under a sad and pitiful delusion-that the refertiliza-
tion ofland is a chemical and not a biological process, and because
there have grown up in England and America most powerful
interests who are determined that the world shall not be dis-
illusioned.
Then, is there no hope for mankind? Yes, there is one hope-
disease. It may teach us the mistakes we should avoid. Just as this
war, with all its enormities, was unavoidable, so disease may prove
to be equally unavoidable before mankind will learn its lesson.
The heavy and indiscriminate use of artificials is the first mistake,
for it produces food of diminishing efficient feeding value for both
man and beast, and is, in my opinion, reducing vitality so low that
resistance to the malign bacilli and bacteria of disease is becoming
less and less. Notwithstanding the formation of the Ministry of
Health with its myriads of enactments, its inoculations, its housing
and its hygiene, with the spending of millions sterling, disease is
still defiant. The source of all disease is in the quality of food we
eat; and the food comes from the soil. Start there. Make a healthy
living soil. Grow thereon a healthy plant. Produce a healthy animal
and, in turn, a healthy man, and the Ministry of Health can be
liquidated eventually.
The second mistake is the feeding of concentrated cakes and
meals-yet more of these are being continuously used. They are
unnatural foods and are fed to cattle and poultry to stimulate the
production of unnatural quantities of meat, milk, eggs and poultry
nieat. I have cured disease in animals by cutting out the feeding of
factory-made concentrates and substituting such food as oats,
peas and beans, and grass, grown on the farm, on humus-sufficient
fertile land.
Two difficulties present themselves:
(1) Farmers will not cease to use artificial fertilizers for their
60
land, because they have been taught by clever propaganda over a
long time that it is more profitable to use them for crop production
than keeping and relying upon livestock; and they are averse from
the wide use of humus because this involves labour which is un-
obtainable or costly. The whole of this difficulty, of course, will
eventually disappear with the advent of the Muck Shifting Crane
but it is bound to be some years yet before the whole country
can have sufficient machinery of this type to make its influence
really felt.
(2) Farmers will continue the use of factory concentrates for
their cattle feeding, because, again, skilful propaganda has driven
into their heads that they can produce neither milk nor meat with-
out them. It does not begin to occur to one farmer in a thousand
that the prevalence of contagious abortion, tuberculosis and the
other ills of their livestock may be brought about by the use of
artificials on the land, or the use of the concentrated cakes fed to
their cows.
And so disease will come. Come? It is already here, everywhere
in abundance. There are very few disease-free herds in the country.
Foot-and-mouth is periodically rampant; tuberculosis is most
dangerously prevalent; mastitis is as common as the dawn of day;
Johue's disease and barrenness are rife everywhere; contagious
abortion, the worst of all, is in almost every herd. It is estimated
on reliable data that 80 per cent of dairy cattle passing through the
markets are diseased in one form or another. The milking life of
the average dairy cow has been reduced from ten years to two and
a half years.
Are the Ministry of Agriculture worried ? Yes, indeed they are.
Remedies? Oh, yes, vaccines and veterinary panels. But why not
start at the bottom in the soil itself? Hush! No one has ever
thought of that. In officialdom you must never go to the root cause
of disease-this is a most unprofessional approach.
And so before the nation can have disease-free food- food with
good nutritional composition-we must first of all endure the
terrible agony of a wide visitation of plague or disease which will
make the BLACK DEATH appear like a summer shower in com-
parison. Disease will become uncontrollable in cattle ere long, and
through meat and milk may transfer itself to men, women and
61
children. We may lose millions of livestock and perhaps millions
of our human population. And then-what then? For a time
doctors will be overworked with inoculations, and more deaths
will ensue, and after that someone will arise in the midst of a
bewildered community and point to the warnings of Sir Albert
Howard and Farmer Sykes, and inquire why their advice was not
heeded; and since by that time most of the beneficiaries of the
vested interests of both artificials and cattle cakes may have suc-
cumbed to the prevailing plague-well, perhaps a trial, anyway,
will be made of my system of farming.
What a pity it is that such an experience appears to be the
inevitable and only way to bring a world, which places vested
interests before life itself, to any sense of true decency of conduct
and sensible action. For only by downright disaster will man come
to repent the error of his ways.
Is it not possible that great men like Mr. Churchill and General
SmutsI- and all are agreed these two are really great men---could
be induced to investigate this important subject of Humus-Fertile
land and its bearing on human and cattle disease?
The Union of South Africa is already becoming compost-
minded, and great strides are being made in the faithful adoption
of Nature's great law of return. In the United States the resources
of the Rockefeller Trust are available for demonstrating on a large
scale the great principle that a fertile soil means healthy crops,
healthy livestock and last, but not least, healthy human beings.
There is still time, but not too much time, to establish this great
truth before the war ends, so that when peace comes agriculture
can take its proper place in the world of tomorrow and the public
system of the future can be based on a soil in good heart.
The real arsenal of democracy is a fertile soil; the fresh produce
of which is the birthright of the nation.
,
Author's Note
'The Black Death (1348- 9) was succeeded by four outbreaks of
similar disease before the end of the century. It destroyed from
one-third to one-half of the rural population. But the great pesti-
lence was not an isolated incident but the last and worst of a series
1 These words were written in 1946.
62
of plagues which swept over England for a hundred years or more
as regularly as trade booms and slumps do now. Shortage of
labour and rural unrest compelled a reform of farming. But it was
many years before the land recovered. Throughout the closing
years of the fifteenth century successive outbreaks of murrain
killed numbers of cattle and sheep, swept off geese 'and poultry
and even destroyed the bees. The Black Death was therefore
preceded and followed by disease in the livestock.'
(English Farming, Past and Present, 3rd Edition, 1922.)1
1 I have allowed 'The Black Death' chapter to be reproduced exactly as
originally written because it is something approaching a historic document.
It was, originally, an isolated article which I wrote at the insistence of the
late Sir Albert Howard and the late Doctor Picton, and it appeared in various
journals and literally travelled all over the world, and into many countries far
removed from the madding crowd. 1 am inserting here a brief record of an
interesting piece of evidence recently acquired from a pupil and professional
client in Sussex,
I laid down the technique which he now follows. He has my four-year deep-
rooting ley everywhere throughout the farm. His fields are grazed with cattle,
and intensively grazed by means of the electric fence. They literally receive
periodically a plastering of dung and urine from his dairy cattle, and after
some three to four years, each field is ploughed in its turn, and the following
practice adopted.
The field, usually about ten acres, is ploughed in the autumn, and the sod
has nicely rotted by February or March. It is then cross-ploughed, and
cultivated thoroughly. Then cauliflower seed is sown for an autumn harvest.
This produce is sold through a merchant, who retails it to shops, and has
yielded £200 per acre.
Who said that Humus-Farming is not profitable?
No artificials here, no poison sprays, not even farmyard-muck. Just inten-
sive grazing of my four-year deep-rooting ley, and the technique set forth
followed for cultivations.
G 63
CHAPTER V
WHY THE ENGLISH FARMER DOES NOT

MAKE AND USE COMPOST
T
hose who have seen the effect of compost on gardens have
found themselves puzzled and disappointed that it is not
widely used in English farming.
There is no more important problem troubling the would-be
intensive farmer in this country today than the problem of main-
taining fertility. 'If this war goes on much longer,' he used to
complain, 'and I am compelled to continue this depleting-fertility-
cropping, how am I to keep up the fertility of my farm, and when
the war is over, how am I to avoid being left with a farm that is
worn-out and utterly exhausted of every bit of its fertility? I am
compelled "by order" to use stimulating artificial fertilizers which,
while giving a crop for the moment, are leaving me with a soil that
will be bankrupt of humus and useless.'
Every farmer of experience knows that he cannot farm for ever
without organic replacements, and yet he does not put them into
the ground.
WHY?
Millions of tons of straw are lying in ricks all over the country
and no attempt is being made, except in isolated instances, to
tread this into muck in the good old-fashioned way.
WHY?
. To answer these two questions one has to examine the back-
ground that has produced this set of conditions.
I think the trouble really began in 1846, when Sir Robert Peel
passed the momentous Act, 'The Repeal of the Corn Laws'. This
Act, although it actually took a long time to do it, proved the
death-knell of British farming. There are no complete statistical
data available with which to measure its effects upon British
64
DOES NOT MAKE AND USE COMPOST
agriculture during the ensuing twenty years; but figures are obtain-
able for Ireland, and these show that areas under wheat, barley
and oats declined by 570,000 acres between 1847 and 1854. The
floodgates of cheap food had been opened, and when the develop-
ment of transport in the new countries of the world, together with
the invention of the self-binder, enabled the virgin 'prairies to be
exploited fully, the British market stood open, ready to absorb a
steadily increasing flow of imports. Then there followed a sensa-
tional reduction in freight rates. The cost of moving wheat by rail
from Chicago to New York was lOs. 2d. per quarter, and from
New York to Liverpool from 5s. 6d. to Is. 7td. in later years. The
opening of the Great Lakes route more than halved the cost from
Port Arthur on Lake Superior to Liverpool. With no refertilization
to bother about, the New World soon made corn growing in aU
its branches anything but an attractive business proposition to the
British farmer, who, with small fields, no mechanical power, and
with re-manuring as an essential of good husbandry, was at a
serious disadvantage. As one looks back over the periods of change
of the last ninety-eight years, one is not surprised that farming at
the outbreak of this war was devoid of technique, machinery and
implements; but rather that there were any men of any kind-
farmers or workers-to be found on the land at all.
The late Christopher Turner said of one of his best tenants:
'In the summer of 1938 one of my tenants (aged forty-two) said
to me, "Something is wrong. I have worked for twelve years, I
have lost my capital. I have now only an overdraft, and I have
lived hard." ,
This man was a good farmer.
With economic pressure like this the British farmer was steadily
driven into effecting every possible economy; land was allowed to
tumble down to grass; the labour bill was reduced by every means.
Workers left the land, not because they did not like the work
thereon, but because there was less and less work for them to do.
Our towns became increasingly congested, our countryside dere-
lict and depopulated. Taking the whole of the world's man-power,
we find that three out of every four persons are employed in
agriculture; but in Britain the proportion is one in agriculture to
nineteen engaged in industry. Surely this is a shocking state
65
DOES NOT MAKE AND USE COMPOST
of affairs and only goes to show how very fundamentally out of
balance this old country has become by disarranging the ratio of
those who are engaged in food production on the one hand and
those who are employed in industry on the other. The most im-
portant of all farming operations in maintaining fertility is to
return to the soil all, and more than all, that the farmer took from
it. This involves the handling of an enormous tonnage of muck or
compost. Until 1944 there was no alternative to manual labour to
perform this function; and as a consequence the job is only
partially done at best and all farmers have to reduce it to a mini-
mum, to the great detriment of fertility, because there is no labour
available. Today, therefore, British farming methods have to be
based, not upon what the farmers know to be the best for their
land but upon what work they can get carried out. We talk officially
about our high degree of mechanization because we have about
one-third of the tractors we require. Mechanization only begins
with tractors and the mechanical handling of muck runs the tractor
pretty close in importance. When this has been successfully accom-
plished- as it now is with the Rapier Muck Shifter-then and not
until then will you see the fair lands of England begin to absorb
the millions of tons of straw and organic manure which are waiting
to be returned to it. I am informed on good authority that there
are at this moment no less than 20,000,000 tons of muck and
organic manures lying about the country waiting to be returned
to the land. There is no mechanization immediately available to
handle this enormous tonnage and there is certainly not the labour
available. That is one of the problems that I have to deal with in
this book.
66 .
CHAPTER VI
HEDGEROW FERTILITY; COMPARISONS

BETWEEN COMPOST AND ARTIFICIALS
X
my various lectures I have often been asked a question on
these lines:
'I have recently put down the first of my new leys since
I began my war-time cropping. I put my cattle in to graze them,
and I have been mystified with the habits of the animals. My new
leys look beautiful but the animals will have none of them-they
all go into the hedgerow and travel round the field eating every
blade of grass right into the middle of the hedge, including the
weeds. Can the speaker explain this phenomenon?'
This is an experience which almost every farmer throughout the
country is beginning to undergo and its scientific significance is so
important that I propose to deal with it at length.
In addition to being a farmer I have been a land-valuer for over
thirty years. To be a good land-valuer one needs to have more
knowledge than the farmer possesses because, while the farmer
may have the experience of his own farm, a land-valuer's needs to
be so extensive as to be applicable to every farm in the district,
every agricultural property in the county, and almost every county
in Britain. I may here say that there are not very many land-valuers
who are quite qualified up to this standard, but there are a few,
and it has been my privilege to survey and value land in nearly
every county from Aberdeen to Cornwall.
The most important qualification that such a land-valuer needs
is the keenest possible observation. He must be competent to note
changes of herbage, of crops, of growth, of colour, of aftliction
to disease and of a whole host of other details with which a long
experience makes him familiar.
I have frequently gone into a district where I have never been
67
HEDGEROW FERTILITY
before and in the course of one or two days I have made a survey
of extensive agricultural property and become so generally intim-
ate with its characteristics as to be able to talk about the condition
of any farm on the estate with the resident agent who really knew
his job. Frequently, these agents have asked, with words of inquiry
and approval, how I had a faculty for taking in such a mass of
technical detail in spite of only a fleeting acquaintance with the
land which I had surveyed. I never gave away the whole of the
secrets of my calling and, for the first time, I am now writing down
for all the world to see, one characteristic which has guided me
infallibly in making an estimate of the condition of the farms and
of enabling me to calculate their worth.
I am now referring to the growth of the hedgerow crops of every
kind-grasses, weeds, thistles, nettles, blackthorn, brambles and
timber. These were a better indication to my eye than the most
elaborate calibrations that any scientist ever placed on a laboratory
instrument. From the luxuriance of growth which I saw in the
hedgerow, always in striking contrast to the growth of crops of
any kind in the middle of the adjoining fields, I used to estimate
the difference in fertility between what the land might have been as
exemplified in the hedgerow and what it had become in the hands
of the husbandman, who presumes to call himself a farmer.
In the hedgerow, Nature, the supreme farmer, produced a crop
year after year of a variety of botanical species all with a luxuriance
of production which shamed every farmer that I have ever met.
Here in the driest season you found the hedgerow growth in
blossom and in Nature's profusion, and the land thereunder with
a capacity for absorbing moisture which defied the most venomous
drought, while the adjoining cultivated ground in a hot time would
be parched, the crop wilted and dying, and the farmer complaining
of so Iowa rainfall that he could not run his farm at a profit. In
t~e hedgerow, Nature can make a grand display but the farming in
the centre of the field is miserable and threatened with extinction.
Here Nature is showing how the farmer should learn to farm.
She grows a crop of self-sown seeds-no need here to seek renewal
from seeds grown on some distant farm-and every year, without
artificial manures, she grows a perfect crop of produce. If this crop
is not grazed by the cattle it falls down dead in the autumn and
68
HEDGEROW FERTILITY
replenishes the earth's requirements in humus and new fertility.
As I have said elsewhere, the effete matters of one generation pro-
vide the food for the next. Nineteen-twentieths of the crop which
is grown in the hedgerow comes from the atmosphere, so that
when this crop decays, twenty times as much bulky material is
returned to the soil as came from it. In the hedgerow, too, if
examination is made and the soil is dug, you will find a copious
supply of earthworms who are living happily and functioning per-
fectly. How then can man copy Nature's ways? By following out
the instructions that are contained in this book and getting back
to Nature in every way, returning to the soil all, and more than
all, that came from it, always remembering that a proportion of
this must be through the animal dung and urine.
We then come to the quality of the produce grown in the hedge-
row, and the explanation in answer to the question at the beginning
of this chapter is this: that the cattle are better judges of the quality
of produce than any chemist in a laboratory, and that when we
wish to test the value of our farming we should test the crops that
we grow by feeding them to our livestock. They will give us a true
reading of the real success or failures in our farming, and when
they decline to eat the new leys which the farmer has grown with
the aid of artificial fertilizers in the centre of the field, and prefer
the old grasses and weeds and rubbish which they find in the
hedgerows, they choose the latter because they are more palatable,
more nutritious, and grown with Nature's own system of refertili-
zation: while the farmer stands back mystified at the phenomenon
that the hedgerow can grow a crop which is preferred by the cattle
and his expensive ley stands out there unconsumed, there is the
reason for this mysterious happening. Properly read, correctly
understood, it is utterly simple, and the farmer should take this
lesson to heart and cease to use artificial fertilizers excessively.
I have said elsewhere in this book that if the farmer will conduct
experiments on his own in the same field with the same composition
of ley, where one-half is composted and the other half is artificially
refertilized, he will again see this same phenomenon and find that
his cattle will prefer the grasses and clovers grown by compost.
Another important feature which I would ask every farmer to
examint: is the ability of the hedgerow to absorb the rains. He will
69
HEDGEROW FERTILITY
find that notwithstanding torrential downpours there will seldom
be a 'run-off' of water from the hedgerow land, while a few yards
inside the field he will have the mortification of observing, especi-
ally if the land is on a slope, that his valuable surface soil is being
washed away in 'erosion' due to the fact that the surface soil of his
fields is insufficiently supplied with humus. The humus content of
the hedgerow land absorbs almost untold quantities of water,
retains it there during the hottest of weather, and provides the
plant with vitalizing solutions all through its growing season.
Hence, the luxuriance, the evergreen greenery, and the continuous
production where Nature has her own way.
If the farmer will do still one more experiment on his own which
will cost him nothing, let him take a walk on the wettest day of the
season over his own farm. He will find that the soil of his arable
land will accumulate round his footwear to such an extent that he
can scarcely get along. In this condition, let him step into the floor
of the forest where the rain, through the dripping of the trees,
almost feels to be worse than it is in the open field, and he will find
that his boots clean themselves as he walks through the forest, for
the absorbent character of the forest floor is such that it can take
all the rain that Nature provides and practically never give walking
conditions which cause the slightest inconvenience to the man on
foot walking underneath the trees. This is another object lesson
telling the farmer that if he would farm well, he must farm as
Nature intended that he should. He should copy her handiwork
in the hedgerow and in the forest and see that his surface soil, at all
times, is heavily charged with humus.
COMPARISONS BETWEEN ARTIFICIAL

FERTILIZING AND COMPOST
When I had the pleasure of entertaining Mr. John Mackie, of
Laurencekirk, at Chantry, he put this question to me:
'As you know, I am a large potato grower. I do not claim to be
a chemist, I do not claim to understand organic manuring, I am a
practical farmer possessed of an open mind, always anxious to seek
jnformation. At the present time I am growing potatoes exten-
sively and I apply muck and heavy dressings of artificial fertilizers.
70
HEDGEROW FERTILITY
As a result of my technique it is usual for me to harvest fifteen tons
to the acre of potatoes. Now I do believe that if I cease to use
artificial fertilizers and change over to your system of farming, I
think that I should not grow the same weight of potatoes that I
am now growing. What is your opinion?' .
I replied that I was of opinion that if he applied compost in
place of farmyard manure which he was then using, and if he
applied a sufficiently large tonnage of that material he would grow
as great a crop, and much better quality crop, than he was growing
with the combined use of farmyard muck and artificials.
I propose now to seek outside evidence in support of the state-
ment that I made to Mr. Mackie, and I am now going to quote
from Robert Elliot's experience and also from experience at a
demonstration farm in Northumberland:
'In my paper read at Cambridge, I stated my conviction that the
chemist must become more of a farmer, and the farmer more of a
chemist, before either can work effectively in arresting the down-
ward course of our British soils. And is it not obvious that if, when
the blind lead the blind, the result is liable to be unsatisfactory, the
leading of the semi-blind by the semi-blind is certain to end in
much more serious disaster? In the former case both are proverbi-
ally liable to be abruptly aroused to the inadvisability of their
proceedings, and that, too, before they have gone very far; but
when a chemist who is agriculturally semi-blind leads a farmer who
is chemically semi-blind, still more unsatisfactory results are, as we
shall see, certain to ensue, for they are sure to be the means of doing
much harm by the propagation of that most dangerous form of
knowledge known by the name of half-truths. In order to prove
this it is only necessary to look into the seventh annual report on
experiments with crops and stock at the Northumberland County
Demonstration, Cockle Park Farm, Morpeth. It is there evidently
assumed that the British farmer has done all he can for himself by
fully employing the natural resources within his reach, and that all
that remains is for the chemist to step in and assist the farmer either
to increase his crops or improve the condition of his animals by
the aid of commercial fertilizers. But the chemist (though adding
the name agricultural would lead people to suppose that he is an
agriculturist as well as a chemist) really knows nothing of agricul-
71
HEDGEROW FERTILITY
ture, and indeed it is obvious that he does not, for otherwise he
would first of all inquire whether the farmer does make a full use
of all the natural resources at his disposal before advising that
various kjnds of chemkal manures should be used. But the chemist
makes no such inquiries. He takes British soil in hand as he finds
it, exhausted more or less by long courses of limings and artificial
manures, and tells the farmer that all he has to do is to replace
what he has taken out of the soil, and that if he wants more pro-
duce from it he must at once apply an increased supply of the
chemical ingredients that have been carried off the land. By this
process the chemist manures the plant and not the soil, while the
farmer puts down as little as he thinks will serve to grow the plant,
which he could not otherwise effectually do, and the plant, grown
through this aid, searches through the soil to absorb the remains
of its natural fertility. Thus the decline of our soils proceeds till
the humus of the soil becomes so thoroughly exhausted that the
diseases of plants increase, and they are more and more at
the mercy of the vicissitudes of unfavourable seasons. Then as the
fertility of the soil declines, and natural sources of plant food dim-
inish and are not replaced, or only in most inadequate degrees by
natural agencies, the artificial manure bill must be increased, and
it has been so increased that farmers now complain that it amounts
to another rent. But such manures, even if they could be had for
nothing, would not enable the plants of the farmer to contend
successfully with climatic shortcomings which so frequently occur
in these islands-excessive drought, or excessive wet, or excessive
cold. If the season is perfect the artificial manure will act fairly
well. If it is too dry there may be too little water present to convey
the plant food into the plant, and if very wet much of the manure
may be washed away, and other parts of it, if not used at once, are
liable to enter into insoluble compounds in the soil; while if the
s~ason is cold the artificial manure cannot raise the temperature
of the soil as humus does. It is evident then that what the farmer
requires is at once a chemical and a physical agent provided at the
lowest cost, which will act with the greatest certainty, no matter
what the season may be, and which will continuously increase the
humus of the soil, and add to its depth. This he can provide, as I
have abundantly shown, by growing a turf of deeply rooted, and
72
HEDGEROW FERTILITY
powerfully rooted plants. The chemist with his artificial manures
can only provide, of course, a costly chemical agent which must
always be, as I have shown, at the mercy of the season, and not
only cannot permanently ameliorate the fertility of the soil, even
in the most favourable seasons, but, unless support~d by dung or
turf, must deplete the soil. To the agriculturist who has what
Locke terms "Large, sound, roundabout sense", the preceding
statements are, of course, mere truisms; but as there are many of
my readers who, to use Locke's words again, "have not a full view
of all that relates to the question, and may be of moment to decide
it", it is advisable to refer them to the statements I have made as
regards the crops grown without manure, and also to allude to
some facts with reference to the experiments made at Cockle Park
County Demonstration Farm. These, as we have seen, are made
on the assumption that the British farmer has done, and continues
to do, all he can for himself, and that it only remains for the chem-
ist to show him how, by the application of artificial manures, he
may derive increased crops from exhausted soil. If the assumption
is correct then the results of the experiments are valuable to the
farmer, but the assumption, as I have abundantly shown at Clifton-
on-Bowmont, is not correct, and the experiments are really only of
value to show the farmer how, with the present low price for
agricultural produce, he may lose his money if, after having adopted
my system and manured his land with turf, he chooses to add
artificial manures. The experiments made at Cockle Park, in order
to stimulate the seed hay crop with various manures from a cost
of 13s. to 36s. per acre, show results which, as compared with my
results from turf-manured land, are distinctly inferior, so that the
farmer working on my system would have lost the value of the
artificial manures had he used them. When I pass to the potato
experiments at the College, as shown in its seventh annual report,
the results are still more striking. As shown in my paper delivered
at Cambridge, August 1904, I last year produced, without any
manure other than turf, 13 tons 14 cwt. of potatoes per acre. With
the aid of 12 tons dung and 6t cwt. artificials, costing lOIs. Id.,
the College produced 13 tons 7-!- cwt., and the College estimates
that this manurial application brought in a profit due to manure
of £23 lIs. 2d. But bow was this profit estimated? By comparing
73
HEDGEROW FERTILITY
the yield with that of the no-manure section, which only produced
2 tons 16 cwt. But if this section had been coated with a deeply
rooted turf there is no reason to suppose, as mine is a poor land
farm, that it would not have produced as much as the manured
section, costing lOIs. Id. per acre, and it must be remembered
that, when growing the turf, no expense other than that of the
seed would have been incurred, while the hay and grazing obtained
when growing the turf would, at a small cost, have yielded a hand-
some profjtl-the average cost of the seed divided over the years
when the turf was being formed coming to about lOs. a year-
varying in occasional years with the goodness or badness of the
grass seed crop, and the demand for seeds. From what I have
shown it seems clear that the Board of Agriculture is really spend-
ing the national funds in teaching agriculturists how to farm at a
loss.
'These conclusions are confirmed by an experiment I made in
1901 in the Big Haugh field (vide Appendix TIl), by which I lost
about the rent of the land by adding dung and kainit to my
ploughed-in turf. The manured section gave 15 tons of potatoes
an acre, at an estimated cost for manure of £2 lOs.; the turf-
manured section gave 14 tons 6 cwt., estimating the potatoes at
£2 per ton, the result was that we lost £1 2s., or about the rent of
the land, from having used manures in addition to turf. This year
(1904), which I am told is an inferior potato year as compared
with last year, the potatoes, grown on Hayhope Shank Field East,
show a decline to 12 tons 18 cwt. 4 lb. on the manured section,
and 12 tons 7 cwt. lIb. where the turf alone was relied on. It is
interesting to note that these results had been obtained under
much more unfavourable circumstances, as, from certain require-
ments on the farm, the rotation system in the case of this field was
altered to oats out of grass, turnips, barley, and turnips, part of
1J?e field this year being allotted to potatoes so that they were pre-
ceded by a cereal crop, then a turnip crop, and then by another
cereal crop. As neither of the two cereal crops had any manure,
1 As it might be supposed that a good turf could not be grown at Cockle
Park, as it is a poor clay soil, I would refer the reader to Appendix m, of
Humus and the Farmer giving results of experiments on the Abbotsley poor
clay soil with one of my mixtures, which has there produced a fine turf in
four years.
74
HEDGEROW FERTILITY
and the turnips some artificiaIs only, the crop of potatoes may be
considered to be the most satisfactory evidence of the great value
of turf as manure, and especially of its lasting effects. It will be
interesting to observe how, on the potato section of Hayhope
Shank field, the grass will compare with that on .the section in
turnips. As yet, no difference can be perceived in the Big Haugh
field between the grass after potatoes and the grass after turnips.
But it must be remembered that the Big Haugh potatoes were
taken out of grass, while those of Hayhope Shank were the fourth
crop of the series, which no doubt accounts partially for the short-
ness of the crop. A fifth crop, a cereal one, will be taken next year,
when the grass seeds will be sown along with it, and tbis crop will
be taken without manure so that the system will be put to a very
severe test.l The soil of the field is what is known as very light
land.'
It will be seen, therefore, from the figures provided by the late
Robert Elliot that there is not much difference between a field
which is highly fertilized with artificials in combination with farm-
yard muck and one wbich is refertilized by sheet composting made
out of the four years' ley, which has been grazed according to the
system set out in this book. It will also be seen after the four or
five years' arable that the lasting effect from land manured with
turf has been proved beyond doubt. This knowledge, provided by
Elliot, which is in complete accord with my own experience, tells
me that if the farmer will but go in for a system of alternate hus-
bandry of four years' mixed ley which I provide, and four years'
arable, he will suffer no diminution of output in tonnage of the
crops, but that he will gain all the time in permanent fertility and
produce crops of food for both man and beast wbich are far more
life sustaining, and therefore, more disease resisting.
THE STORY OF 300 HARES

Carrying on his research Sir Robert McCarrison in Madras
found that grain produced with farmyard manure contained more
1 No difference could be perceived in the grass taken after potatoes, and the
fifth crop (oats) was a satisfactory one, so that the lasting effect from land
manured with turf has been proved beyond doubt.
75
HEDGEROW FERTILITY
vitamins than that grown with minerals. A confirmation of this
finding, in the case of vitamin B, is recorded in the experiment
carried out by Rowlands and Wilkinson of the Knightsbridge
Laboratories.
The only tests a farmer can make on his own, however, are with
animals, and several instances are recorded in these pages. One
of the most arresting concerns hares.
Some sixty-five acres of wheat were sown in the autumn of 1944.
There was good germination, and a strong plant, but throughout
the entire winter- which was exceptionally severe during January
1945- the hares from an adjoining estate showed a preference for
my wheat, as against other people's crops, and especially as against
another crop of wheat grown with artificials by a neighbouring
farmer, over which field the hares had to travel in order to reach
mine. This adjoining field of wheat was left quite untouched, but
every plant in the whole of my sixty-five acres was systematically
eaten. Following the drills right through the field the hares kept
the wheat plants cropped down to the ground. Whenever I ad-
vanced towards them they bolted across my neighbour's wheat,
leaving it untouched.
The only explanation that I can offer is that my wheat, being
grown with humus and without artificials, was distinctly more
palatable to the hares than my neighbour's: this incident provides
the best advertisement for the use of artificials in neighbourhoods
where rabbits and hares about. My general experience both with
my own animals and with ground vermin corroborates the experi-
ments mentioned above in showing that crops grown by artificials
are neither so life sustaining nor so palatable as those grown with
humus.
Some 300 hares were shot by my neighbour and his twenty-nine
guns in a two-day hare-drive in February; it is a curious law,
&urely, by which a farmer may have to provide his neighbour with
this quantity of 'sport' and have no claim to compensation.
76 ,
CHAPTER VII
MAKING A NEW PASTURE

hat wonderful crops can be grown on the upturned sod
W of an old pasture! Those who have had this experience

appreciate its latent fertility. Fertility has been accumu-
lated over years of grazing and manuring, and when it is ploughed
all this store of wealth is liberated and cashed in by the lucky
farmer. I had one experience among very many which will be
interesting for the reader to note. A field of some twenty-five
acres was down, I suppose for over sixty years, perhaps longer.
This field was credited with being full of disease. I was advised not
to put stock into it unless I wanted them to be infected. I ploughed
it, and on the upturned sod I sowed one sack to the acre of Victory
oats and had the satisfaction of harvesting over twenty-two sacks
to the acre. The next year I sowed Vilmorin 27 wheat, and again
I had a bumper crop and harvested some thirteen sacks to the
acre. Then the whole field had to be summer-tilled. It was sub-
jected to several ploughings, cultivations and to subsoiIing. At the
end of that summer-tilling, three bushels to the acre of Vilmorin 27
wheat was sown and this time a phenomenal crop of wheat to the
acre was grown- and this on a field some eight hundred feet above
sea-leve1. For land like this, and an altitude like this, perhaps it
may be something approaching a record. Thus it will be seen that
to break a pasture makes a man.
Now we must consider the other side of the picture altogether.
To me a pasture is something on which bullocks will grow and
fatten for some years to come. A place where I can graze dairy
cattle in the hope that they will milk adequately without any kind
of concentrated feeding. It is an important and scientific under-
taking, therefore, to study how to lay down such a pasture, and
how many operations and how much time will be necessary before
results will show themselves.
77
The lack of knowledge amongst farmers generally about grass
growing and clover production is considerable. When they need a
grass and clover mixture they would appear to possess little ex-
perience which will enable them to compile it for themselves.
Their usual plan is to go to their seed merchant with whom they
regularly deal, and ask him for a mixture of clover and grass seed.
He immediately asks whether it is for one year or for two years, or
for three years or for longer; and then the farmer is further at a
loss-he is not sure sometimes whether he wants it for a short
term or a long term. After some discussion, however, the seeds-
man gives him a prescription-perhaps the seedsman knows the
land; but I should say, more often than not he knows nothing at
all about the particular soil for which he is providing. My method
of providing a seed prescription is as follows.
I go over the old pasture and I take careful record of the different
grasses, clovers, and various species of herbage that are growing
there, and then I build up as nearly as I can a new prescription
from those species. By so doing I know that I am introducing new
seeds of varieties that will thrive and develop on that particular
field. I know, furthermore, that by getting a thriving plant I shall
eventually establish a sward which will feed my stock in the desired
way. This is the way I always build up my seeds mixture.
Sir George Stapledon has made a great reputation, and quite
worthily so, in recent years, by the study he has made of grasses
and clovers. He has written many interesting books on this subject,
and I think that he is the first to recognize that the authority from
whom he learned most of his early lessons, was Robert Elliot, the
author of that famous book, The Clifton Park System of Farming.
The modern edition of that book, which was written originally
about the year 1890, has a foreword written by Stapledon. I am
glad to be able to note the fact that Sir George admits how much
. he owes to that great pioneer of grass and clover farming. No one
in our generation, or in the generations immediately preceding us,
has done so much research work of such a valuable character as
did Elliot, at Clifton Park, on the Scottish border.
The next item that I have to remember is to regard any ley that
I may put down as a crop of a very temporary character. Although
many grasses are known as perennial, they are not in fact really
78 .
9. Hedonist go ing o ut a t Newbury to run his first race
10. Hedonist by Big Game ex Amy Leigh

II . Yearling- Amalia by Big Game ex Amy Leigh . Sold as yea rling for 5,000 guineas
12. Broodmare- Amy Leigh (1948) by Bobsleigh ex Lady Amy. Dam of Weeber
(winner of £5,000 including Queen Mary Stakes at Ascot and sold to California for
10,000 guineas). Dam also of Hedonist, Amali fl, Tenelee and High Lea
so: and the longer they remain down, the weaker they become.
Possessed of this knowledge I see to it that I make no pasture of a
greater duration than four years. As I have indicated in other
parts of my book, I run a four years' ley, with a four years' arable
(see Chapter IV).
Having settled the seed mixture, the next important matter for
the farmer to decide is the time of year when he will grow it. The
following is my technique of land preparation which is, perhaps,
most important of all.
After the third year of arable, in the four-year arable rotation,
I give the land a ploughing in the autumn following the previous
year's cereal crop. This first ploughing is left to be attacked by
frost throughout the coming winter, and as soon as possible, in
the early months of the year, perhaps about mid-February, if the
weather is favourable, this ploughing is cross-ploughed. In a fort-
night or three weeks' time, again governed by the weather, this is
again cross-ploughed, and then perhaps it is cross-ploughed a
further time. Altogether I should not be content with less than
three or four ploughings. Then it would be cultivated with the
Cultivator. This process of ploughing and cultivation would go
on between the middle of February and the end of June. On
July 1st- and may I emphasize the importance of noting these
dates because timeliness is the essence of this contract- on
July 1st I should sow, after a cultivation, twenty pounds of mus-
tard to the acre. Harrow this in and roll it. In about four weeks'
time that crop of mustard will be from four inches to six inches
high. On July 31st-not later if you please-I should plough this
under. Again harrow and roll. On the upturned ploughing I should
then drill three bushels to the acre of giant Essex rye. The next
day sow my grass and clover seeds mixture. That would be
harrowed and rolled at once. In six weeks' time there would be
a growth of rye probably four to eight inches in height; and the
clovers and grasses would be growing quite well. The depth of the
growth would obviously be governed by the rainfall and warmth
of the season and the inevitable contributions that climate always
makes to growth. Usually the growth is considerable and it is
generally so heavy that one of two courses has now to be pursued.
One, that this should be grazed as quickly as possible and, if the
H 79
weather is fine, by bullocks and sheep. The crop is grazed fairly
severely, but not too hard, and to do this put on the greatest
number of animals that are available. In about a month or six
weeks' time again repeat this grazing process, when it will be
found that on a thirty-acre field sometimes as many as eighty or a
hundred bullocks can be carried for periods, on and off, right up
to Christmas; again, this is governed very much by the weather.
If the weather in the autumn is wet, the bullocks should be kept
off the land, and the sheep should be grazed in preference. If sheep
are not available then one or possibly two crops of ensilage should
be made; because the growth of the rye is such, that something
must be done to get this crop cut; otherwise it will fall over and
will smother the oncoming grasses and clover, which is undesirable
in the year 1944, for that crop of grass and clover seeds alone will
cost the farmer something like 1oos. per acre. Obviously these
valuable seeds must be cared for. This is the treatment right up to
Christmas. Mter that the land is again harrowed when weather
permits, to spread the manure. Then it should be left until about
the end of March. Again, the growth will vary, but usually it is
considerable. Somewhere in the very early days of April this crop
is again ready to be grazed. Heavy grazing should again be the
order of the day. Mter this third grazing, rest it again for a few
weeks; but again take the precaution of spreading the manure with
a chain harrow; also, the act of rolling the land with a fiat roller
is important. Mter about a month or six weeks, again according
to the growth of the crop, repeat the grazing process by as heavy a
head of stock as is available. Taken by and large, this will bring
the farmer somewhere about to the tenth or eleventh month after
the date of the original sowing. He will then find, looking back,
that he has taken off that land already four very heavy grazing
crops of food, which has sustained bullocks, milking cattle, or
' sheep, or a mixture of all of them, for nearly a year. He will also
find that he is possessed of one of the finest swards of grasses and
clovers that he has ever seen.
I propose to explain exactly what happens here, but before doing
so, I would like to refer to some of the other methods that farmers
try, which I have tried, of establishing swards at various seasons of
the year. All of these methods, whatever their merit, frequently
80
lead to failure and disappointment. There is what is called the
direct system of reseeding; that is to say, early in April or the last
few days of March, mixtures of grass and clovers are sown direct
to the soil, and if good rain comes perhaps you get a nice establish-
ment in six or eight weeks, which you can graze lightly, preferably
with sheep: but in my part of the country this is almost invariably a
deadly gamble; because we are accustomed to spring drought nearly
every spring, and I have never had the satisfaction in this part of
Wiltshire of having a good 'take' with seeds at this time of the year.
Then there is the next school of thought which believes in sowing
about half the usual crop of cereals, say two bushels of oats to the
acre, or half the usual barley sowing, and under-sowing this with
the seeds mixture. Then in the middle of the season the crop of
oats or barley, or the combination of the two cereals is cut, and
after that the oncoming clover and grass seed are lightly grazed.
But this, again, is a speculation and a gamble on the hills of this
part of Salisbury Plain, where our rainfall is sadly too little (some-
times under twenty inches) and where we are asking the Almighty
to give rain when, in His mysterious dispensation, He decides not
to do so. Therefore, I have abandoned this kind of experiment
along with others because of its many uncertainties.
Then there is the further scheme, which others and myself have
tried, of sowing grass seed and clover without another crop to-
wards the end of JUly. Generally speaking, as far as this part of the
country is concerned, this has given me better results than the
spring sowing, but none have given me any results comparable to
the one which I have described in the early part of this chapter;
and it may now well be asked, 'Why is it that there is such a cer-
tainty of a good "take", and can you scientifically explain why
you have inaugurated such a system, which has never been heard
of in any other part of the country?' This is my explanation.
On page 83 is reproduced a graph which I have drawn, and
which has been checked by the kindness of Sir Albert Howard.
This is a graph referring to the 'fixation of nitrogen'. Nitrogen
fixation is a mysterious subject about which most farmers know
little or nothing. It is not a too difficult subject to understand, and
in the words of explanation which I am now providing, together
with the graph, I believe my explanation will prove easy of under-
81
standing. First of all it is necessary to know the physical fact that
there are two nitrogen cycles in the course of spring and autumn.
The first cycle begins to show itself about the first or second week
in March and, as the soil warms with the oncoming spring sun,
nitrogen increases. As the nitrogen rises from day to day the
bacterial population, the fungi, the earthworms and the soil micro-
organisms multiply in untold numbers. When we reach the first
week in April, the soil population is rising very rapidly as reference
to the graph will show. It continues further to develop until the
third week of May- it varies a little, of course, in different localities
-and towards the end, or about the end of May, organic-nitrogen-
fixation has increased to its maximum. From that time we notice
that the lines of the graph steadily decline until they come down
considerably in about the middle of July. Now, as a result of this
great increase in nitrogen availability, the soil population of nitro-
protein-consuming-organisms, fungi and earthworms, is really tre-
mendous. As the nitrogen falls in volume there is a soil population
which is probably much too great for the soil to carry and, at this
season, there is insufficient food to sustain that population. In a
hungry condition they begin to attack one another, and do a great
deal of deadly damage in consequence. Now, this is the time that
we choose to sow our mustard, and we begin by sowing it on July
1st. As a result of the nitrogen which is already in the soil, we get a
very quick growth during that month of this particular crop. As
soon as that crop is turned in, precisely on August 1st, the soil
population, in a desperate state of hunger, consume that luscious
and high protein containing food, now newly turned in, and they
eat it with avidity. They convert those proteins into further nitro-
gen supplies, phosphate supplies and supplies of potash, and all
from an organic source.
This is made immediately available to the oncoming rye crop,
which is sown on August 1st, and the oncoming grass and clover
crop which is sown on August 2nd. The result is that the rye and
those clover and grasses grow with a magic which is greater than
if you had supplied an enormous tonnage of artificial nitrogen and
phosphates. They literally almost jump out of the ground, and they
continue to grow in luxurious profusion during the whole of the
twelve months. The one point of this discussion, which I want to
82
1928 1929
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Mm: Apr. )(fUj Jwu Jultj.Au.( &".
Kar. Apr. ~ JIDIL July All{ S'f'- Od:.
The Fixation of Nitrogen (see pages 81- 82 and end oj page 86)
emphasize, is the timeliness of the whole operation. I have heard

many people say: Oh, I have tried the growing of mustard, but it
never seemed that I got much usefulness out of it. The real value
of ploughing in a green crop is to plough it into the soil at a time
when the soil popUlation can make most use of it; and thus convert
that green crop into food for the nitrogen-forming organisms and
other living soil-conditioners of the greatest possible value. This
is the season of the year when this can best be done, and that is the
way I establish my new leys.
Some of my friends have already named this the 'Sykes system
of establishing a ley'. However that may be, and for what it may
prove itself to be worth, I am glad to hand it forward to coming
generations of farmers, and the benefit of such experiments and
practices as I have had the privilege to carry out. That, then, is my
method of putting down a ley and provided the timeliness of the
operation is strictly observed, it ought never to fail.
One hears such a lot in these days of farming innovations about
'the early bite'. One instinctively conjures up in one's mind all sorts
of delicious tasty morsels which might be calculated to tickle the
83
fastidious palate of the most epicurean cow that ever walked into
a luscious spring pasture. We can allow the imagination to run
riot with thoughts like these since we too can just dimly recall the
day when to sit down to a well-prepared dinner composed of a
variety of the best products of the good earth was an incident to
live for. One never knows, but even cows may have equally well-
developed gastronomic fancies and predilections. Certainly I have
witnessed cows in the early spring go into a new pasture with an
eagerness which far outweighed the looks of happy anticipation
that the most ardent epicure has ever displayed in approaching a
gourmet's meal at the Savoy.
How can one provide this delicious treat for our animals who
have lived through the rigours of winter, and not long ago with all
the rationing restrictions thrown in? The artificial manure manu-
facturer has written sheaves of propaganda on this subject. Need-
less to say, after expatiating on the technique, the mixture of grasses
and clovers to sow, he advises one to apply a top dressing of sul-
phate of ammonia, and sometimes he includes the provision of
either superphosphate or basic slag as well.
I don't believe in dope like that for the good of the land, or the
crop, or the animal eating the crop. My methods, I think, apart
from being better, are more in accord with Nature, and the old
adage 'never get far from Nature's practice when you go farming,
my boy, and you will never go far wrong', has much to be said
for it.
Therefore, my advice is this. Every year, see to it that you put
down a fresh crop of grasses and clovers according to the 'rye
cover crop' outlined in this chapter. You will find your rye growing
in the month of March and early April with a wealth and luxuri-
ance such as none of your established leys will show, even if those
have been top dressed with sulphate of ammonia. You will be
able to graze this rye probably in the third or fourth week in
March, or early April, and the crop will carry a very heavy head
of stock. Be sure to graze with the largest head you can muster,
and graze on the 'on and off' principle. This rye will carry your
stock on until your grazing leys are ready for spring grazing, when
the rye can be rested and grazed again when it has grown up tall
enough. Rye is our 'earliest of all' spring growing 'graminae', and
84 -
I am surprised that no farmer in my wide experience has ever sown
it, even if for no other reason than that it provides this invaluable
'early bite' that we all so badly need in spring, and provides this,
moreover, without the addition of any top dressing by artificials.
Another interesting feature of this rye crop technique is the ease
with which the farmer can deal with the serious problem of char-
lock infestation.
I cannot think that any farm in England has had worse farmers
in years long ago than this piece of land which the Almighty has
handed on to me.
Soon after I bought this property I had occasion to visit my
solicitor in London, and he asked me to go into a private room to
read over the deeds of this estate, and this I did, covering the his-
tory of most of a hundred years. I found that during the last sixty
or seventy years there had been something like a dozen farmers in
occupation of this land and nearly all of them had either gone
broke or left the place in financial difficulties. There may have been
one exception.
This will give the reader some idea of the very poor condition of
the land and of its general neglect. One of the farms is now named
'New Zealand farm' but in the old maps this is called 'Van Die-
mens farm', and a better name could not be given to this out of
the world spot.
I think, too, that in the days of old, charlock must have been one
of the principal crops in this part of the world, and the farmers
determined that they should grow prize crops of this particular
botanical species. In any event, I have never seen soil so infested
with this infernal weed as much of my land is, and how to grow a
spring crop and not suffer its being suffocated with charlock
becomes one of the most serious problems in farm planning.
In testing out this rye system of laying down a new ley, I have
accidentally discovered a method by which I can deal with my
charlock troubles.
Sowing on August 1st the strike of charlock is as instantaneous
as the growing of the rye itself, and I succeeded in producing a
mixed crop of rye and charlock which I am quite sure must be
without equal anywhere in England. This does not worry me in the
least, however, at this particular season of the year, because I
85
know how to deal with it and although it may be news to some
farmers cattle eat charlock quite readily, especially if it is mixed
with rye; in fact I think it may seriously be claimed that the rye
crop itself is improved in palatability by the addition of the char-
lock. Be that as it may, the cattle eat the whole crop in the first
eating and I have no further trouble from charlock during the next
four years. This is an interesting and useful piece of technique for
farmers everywhere to note, for the problem of dealing with
charlock-infested land is a serious one and it restricts one's spring
sowing so much that it nearly makes the farm impossible to man-
age.
Sir Albert Howard, commenting on this chapter, says:
'The graph is the graph of nitrate accumulation which follows
nitrification.
'The spring peak is higher than the late summer peak. The
mustard uses the nitrate in the spring peak, the rye what is left, the
grasses use the late summer peak now assisted by the organic
matter of the mustard.'
86 .
CHAPTER VIII
LAND RECLAMATION
n the month of July 1944, I was invited to visit the estate of
I the Viscount Arbuthnott of Arbuthnott House, Fordoun, in

the county of Kincardine, on the north-east coast of Scotland.
Lord Arbuthnott took me over the whole of his estate, and parti-
cularly asked me for an opinion about land reclamation, which he
had been compelled to carry out by the orders of the County War
Agricultural Executive Committee.
This work had obviously been done incorrectly. He did not
claim to be knowledgeable on the subject, and he asked me for
my opinion whether the instructions issued by the War Committee
were wise or otherwise. I said these were incorrect in almost every
detail and I afterwards, at his request, wrote him a professional
report which is reproduced in this chapter.
I should mention that this was high land, somewhere about
],000 or 1,100 feet contour, high moorland, which had been dere-
lict for, I should imagine, most of a hundred years, or possibly
even longer than that. More unfruitful land to bring into cultiva-
tion it would almost be impossible to find; and certainly the War
Committee had something of a nerve to determine that this land
should be brought back.
The technique which they demanded and prescribed however
was, in my opinion, utterly wrong: I submit my report to my
readers as being of considerable importance, because, as time
proceeds and it becomes necessary for every acre of land in this
country to be returned to fertility, many thousands of acres of
similar material may have to come under the plough and be
brought back into usefulness. In that event the technique which
I have set out is one that ought to be followed.
87
LAND RECLAMATION
'Chantry, Chute,
'Andover, 2nd August 1944.
'The Rt. Hon. the Viscount of Arbuthnott,
'Fordoun, Kincardineshire.
'Dear Lord Arbuthnott,
'THE UNDRAINED LAND ON THE HIGHLANDS OF YOUR ESTATE
'I have examined this ground, and consider the technique em-
ployed faulty.
'In my opinion, to put matters right, the people who did the
ploughing with the Prairie Buster, should be called upon at their
own expense, using the same implement, to plough back the land
carefully so as to restore the soil to its original position and condi-
tion. The subsoil-now on the top-will thus be returned below;
while the topsoil- now below-will be returned to the surface,
where it should always remain. If there is any fertility-real or
latent- in this marginal soil it is in the top four inches.
'The subsoil may be rich in minerals and trace elements, but it is
not fertile, and deep ploughing in the early days is mischievous.
'The only method of reclaiming this poor land, both for im-
mediate usefulness as well as for permanent farming, is to pursue
approximately the following course of husbandry.
'1. Subsoil two feet deep-where the land will admit of it-
every four feet, with a Ransomes C.LC. Subsoiler, pulled by a
Tracklayer Tractor.
'2. Cross-plough this operation with a semi-digger type plough
four inches deep.
'3. Disc this ploughing with a Heavy-duty No.3 Baron Ran-
some Disc, or equal heavy disc of other make, and make a really
good seed bed. This may need several discings.
'4. Apply one ton of ground lime to the acre.
, '5. Apply five to seven hundredweight of high content slag to
the acre.
'6. Then sow per statute acre:
2 lb. of Aberystwyth S.lOO White Clover
3 lb. of Rape
15 lb. of Italian Ryegrass
and roll thoroughly.
88
LAND RECLAMA TlON
<7. Graze intensively with sheep when crop is four to six inches
high, on the "on and off" principle.
'8. Continue to graze with sheep and cattle for two years.
'9. Then plough four inches deep and sow oats.
'10. Undersow with SIb. of Hants Late Flowering Red Clover,
or equal, and 18 lb. of Perennial Ryegrass to the acre.
'11. In its season make hay, plough immediately and sow wheat,
about September 15th, using Vilmorin 27 or barley.
'12. In the spring undersow with the following Four Years' Ley:
12 lb. of Cocksfoot (Akaroa)
2 lb. of Italian Ryegrass
3 lb. of Timothy
2 lb. of S.100 Aberystwyth White Clover
5 lb. of Hants Late Flowering Red Clover
4 lb. of American Sweet Clover
2 lb. of Alsike
1 lb. of Yarrow
4 lb. of Burnet
3 lb. of Chicory
38 lb. per Statute Acre
'13. Graze with sheep and cattle the first year. Hay and graze
aftermath the second year. Hay and graze aftermath the third year.
Entirely graze the fourth year.
'14. Then plough under, taking a rotation of roots the first year,
wheat or barley or oats the second. Rape and sheep the third year,
with barley undersown with the above four years' ley for a further
four years.
'15. It will therefore resolve itself into an eight years' rotation,
where the fertility throughout all time will be organically and
chemically fully provided for, if this system is faithfully and con-
sistently followed. No artificial fertilizers will ever have to be
bought, after the initial application of slag. Lime may, however,
have to be added during the arable rotation, but, of course, lime is
not an artificial fertilizer.
'General opinion. A great deal of misguided insistence was
laid by War Committees throughout Britain during the war on
89
LAND RECLAMATlON
bringing much marginal land, of very low fertility, back into
speedy cultivation.
'They have often done this with very little knowledge or experi-
ence of the task with which they had to deal, and as the funda-
mentals of this important problem need to be more widely known,
I will state a little of my own practice.
'Wherever artificials have been heavily applied as an initial
dressing on land of this low fertility, and a cereal crop taken im-
mediately, the land invariably "flops", and either refuses to yield
further crops, or gives poor crops at best, ending eventually in
utter uselessness.
'This land usually has remained derelict over vast periods of
time, has become unbalanced in the constituents of fertility, and
the heavy applications of estimated "deficiencies" is scientifically
wrong. There is only one basis of fertility, according to Sir Albert
Howard, and that is "A fertile land is one rich in humus".
'All the artificials in the world will not make humus. They will,
however, compel poor land to give up speedily its meagre store of
humus, and will then leave it worn out and exhausted.
'Land, therefore, of low humus fertility content must be treated
as a "weak patient", where strong and heavy applications of
artificials do not build bodily fitness, but exhaust such stores of
energy as there might be.
'The task should be to build up bodily fitness by such plant food
additions as are humus making-e.g. the system outlined herein-
and in due time this land will yield heavy returns to both farmer
and landlord, and so long as this sound method is continued will
continue so to do.
'This outlined system for the recovery of poor marginal land is
the only one which any war committee should allow to be put into
practice.
'Yours faithfully,
(Signed) FRIEND SYKES'.
Special Note
'Slag is necessary only to begin with to save time. Then the sub-
soiler and the deep rooting plants will look after the phosphates
very well indeed.'
90 ·
CHAPTER IX
HARVESTING METHODS EXAMINED

hen I wrote fourteen years ago, and then made a survey
W of the methods by which corn was then being harvested,

there were some 3,000 combine harvesters operating in
England. Today there are nearly 40,000 such machines at work,
and the number is increasing every year.
At that time, too, the effidency of those old machines left much
to be desired, while the resulting grain was all thrown on to the
'market' at once, causing clogging of the usual channels of hand-
ling and consumption. In a wet season the grain was wet, and the
millers declined to accept it; so considerable were the problems
and losses which some of the early combine users had to contend
with.
So far as I was concerned I stood aside, and remained extremely
critical of that state of affairs, for I saw everywhere that the key
problem associated with harvesting in England was to 'condition'
and 'store' the grain, and that until this was solved the combine
could not be an unmixed blessing. These many problems brought
inventive engineers into the arena of harvesting, many of whom
had little acquaintance with farming problems, and none with the
conditioning of grain. The so-called dryers that were designed and
marketed represent a tragedy, as many a wretched farmer can tell,
to his cost.
Recently an invention embodying expanded metal containers
came on the market. This seemed to me to be worth investigation,
and after visiting a large plant that was erected in the Fens, I ex-
claimed, 'At last! We have a dryer and a conditioner of grain!'
Buying the various components, and designing a plant to suit our
own peculiar needs, we finally installed a factory at Chantry,
where in the year of grace 1957, we harvested 300 acres of grain by
91
two men, and did the job perfectly. Although the season was
difficult, all the grain was mechanically handled, cleaned, condi-
tioned, and finally stored safely in expanded metal containers: the
most perfect job I have ever seen on a farm, and accomplished
literally with the utmost ease.
Photographs of an expanded metal plant are here to be seen in
these pages, and show what a veritable factory it all represents;
still, we had no alternative but to follow the general trend. Labour
grows scarcer every year, and more and more expensive. If 400
acres of cereals was to be our programme, the old binder, stacking,
thatching, threshing, and the rest of it, simply could not be con-
templated. The labour was not there. But even if it had been, the
wages could not have been paid, so it was mechanization at every
point of the compass. But in this regard, with a combine whose
efficiency is beyond doubt, and with cleaning, drying, and mech-
anical handling of grain such as we have now installed, we can
solve our harvesting problems at a cost of less than a third of the
older methods in vogue when Humus-and the Farmer was first
written.
To enable the reader to understand fully the problems confront-
ing the inventor who set out to dry and condition the grain the
combine sent in from the field, it is well worth while to consider
in sequence the details of every link in the chain. The first combine
was designed to fill sacks. These were sent down a shoot on to the
ground: to begin with, one at a time. Then it occurred to the com-
bine makers that if the shoot was redesigned they could be sent
down in half-dozens. When the lorry came along there would then
be six sacks to load instead of one. These sacks were very heavy,
for the original farm sack was four bushels, and in the case of
wheat weighed 21 cwt. To throw that weight all the livelong day
called for two strong men. Believe me, they got sick of that quite
, soon. They literally crumpled up. So the combine designer then
conceived the 'Tank' combine. This was designed to hold perhaps
30 cwt. of grain, and, with a mechanical discharger, could empty
itself into a trailer in less than two minutes. So then we had to
design a new trailer. The old trailer, which had served the old
regime, would not work. Not only that, but there must be hy-
draulic tipping-gear incorporated in the new trailer. Eventually
92
HARVESTING MEtHODS E:XAMINED
this was designed and made. It was then discovered that it would
not do to make it of wood, because however well made the gear,
the wood would open at the jointings and riddle the grain on to
the road. So a steel container, holding five tons, was next invented,
and made easily removable after harvest, so that the trailer could
be used for muck-carting at other times of the year, or for any
other of the many purposes for which modern trailers have their
uses on the farm.
These, then, were the detailed problems asking for solution for
handling the grain between the combine-in-the-field and the fac-
tory, where it would be eventually received, conditioned, and
stored. After many millions of pounds had been expended by
farmers in failures all over the country, requiring years of patience,
the transport of the grain was satisfactorily organized.
Now we come to the factory. What are the problems here? To
begin with, two large receiving hoppers, going 18 to 24 feet into
the ground, had to be designed, then lined with bricks. At Chantry
these hoppers are two in number, each holding 20 tons, and
required 14,000 bricks to equip (enough bricks to build three
council houses), and then there had to be a second pit into which
the grain could fall by gravity, and from there be elevated at the
rate of 10 tons an hour into the cleaner. This individual equipment
at Chantry cost round about £2,000, and this is only the beginning
of our factory processes. From the cleaner the grain falls again
by gravity into another deep concrete pit, from which it is lifted
by another 10-ton per hour elevator into a conveyor which con-
ducts the grain to one of four drying towers, made of expanded
steel. Each of these contains about 15 tons of wheat, so that when
all four towers are in use together a batch of 60 tons of wheat can
be treated at one charge. On the other hand, each tower can be
run separately. As to how long grain remains in the tower, this is
governed by the percentage of moisture the grain is shown by
test to possess.
Let us leave the technicalities covering drying-important indeed
as they are-and follow the grain through to its final resting-place.
After having been dried, each tower is emptied by the opening of
a valve in the floor of the tower. The grain falls out at considerable
speed, into a conveyor, thence into a pit, from which it is elevated
93
HAR VESTING METHODS EXAMINED
to the top of the building, into another conveyor, which takes it to
its final 4O-ton silo, where it is hoped it will more or less perman-
ently reside.
Now the whole array of this grain travel is done mechanically
by the aid of electric motors attached to each unit of movement.
There is no man-handling of grain anywhere. Hundreds of tons
can be pushed all over the factory, and never one grain of it
touched by human hand. What this saves in cost and sweat is
literally beyond belief.
There is one further item of grain-conditioning which calls for
passing reference, and that is the danger of the grain itself produc-
ing a false-reading on the instruments used to ascertain its moisture
content; grain sometimes, and quite often in fact, starts to heat a
few weeks after it has been ~put away' in the 40-ton silos. When this
happens this wonderful mechanism is again brought into play.
The silos are speedily emptied, the grain is run round the estab-
lishment, put back into the drying towers if necessary, or if the
sweating is slight, simply transferred from one silo to another. To
enable this change to take place, one silo has to be kept empty as a
reserve silo.
Quite often the simple process of re-aerating all the grain
through its transport in the conveyors, when every item of grain
is quite adequately exposed to the air, is sufficient to dissipate the
heat, and the grain settles down after such movement.
Now let us get back to the drying processes in the towers.
Quite surprisingly to anyone not acquainted with the mysteries
of wet grain and the drying thereof, heat is not the agent which
should be used to dry the grain. If heat is used, the tendency is
for each grain to shrink its outside skin so tightly, that it locks
within itself all its internal moisture, and the effect is extremely
mischievous. If grain is allowed to dry slowly, through exposure
. to dry air, it will dry itself out through the 'intra-molecular-
respiration-of-the-enzymes'. To handle large tonnages of grain,
however, it is not practicable to wait so long, or exercise such
detailed patience as this natural process calls for. Therefore, while
abiding as closely as possible to Nature's needs, something must
be done to speed up her own processes. This can only be safely
achieved by dehumidifying the air. This is done as a matter of
94 '
13. Yearling fill y, Ben-my-chree, by Mossborough ex L<ldy Amy , sold for
4,000 guineas. Half-sister to five winners
. llJinois in training as a two-year-old. Winner of Seven Dials Slakes a t Brighton.

Duke of York Stakes Kempton Park, Brighthelmstone Stakes at Brighton,
and Brighton Cup. Total stakes to June 14th 1958, £4, 157
J5 . Yearling, Weeber, by Panorama ex Amy Leigh. Sold for 10,000 guineas
to Ca lifornia
16. Yearling colt, Hedonist

regular routine as follows. The humidity of the 'air' is taken every
morning. If the percentage is 'high', then natural air will simply
not dry any grain; it may, in fact, add to its wet condition. This
condition, therefore, calls for the application of heat in some form.
It can be obtained either through electricity, by paraffin burners,
or by waste heat. We use waste heat. We have built a small power-
house specially to make waste heat. This building is just large
enough to accommodate a large 30 h.p. Cyclone, which is driven
by a tractor of 40 h.p. The air entering this small building is con-
trolled and is just enough to enable the engine to run efficiently,
and the waste heat generated by this tractor is sufficient to raise
the temperature within that building very considerably. This heat
'dehumidifies' the air, and the Cyclone blows that dry air through
a duct running underneath the four drying towers. Each of these is
controlled by a valve, and they can thus be brought to all work
together, or 3, 2 or 1. Dry air-not hot air- is thus made available,
and this is forced through the drying towers, the design of which
can be examined by reference to the illustrations in this book. This
system of drying is so effective that, under favourable conditions,
all four towers can produce dry grain in twenty-four hours. Obvi-
ously all this is governed by the original moisture content of the
grain, so that it can take longer or shorter time according to the
moisture percentage recorded in the reading of the grain moisture
when it enters the tower.
This is the most effective method of drying and conditioning
grain that I have yet examined. In the first place, it is completely
effective. It is as near fool-proof a process as it is possible to make
it. It finishes the grain in as good condition as ever it did in the
old-fashioned 'rick'. The grain is ready to be sold quite soon after
harvest, or it can be stored indefinitely, which means that the
farmer can choose the most favourable time of January, February,
March or April to secure the best possible price for any grain that
he may sell. If, on the other hand, a farmer does as we think best
to do, i.e. sell as little grain as possible in the market, and retain it
all, or nearly all, for consumption by livestock on the farm, a
higher price is obtained through milk, beef, mutton, pork, than
any that will be realized by direct sale on the open market. This
system of drying, conditioning, and storage aids all those features
I 95
in our farming which we treasure so highly. Furthermore, we have
hundreds of tons of muck with which to refertilize our land as a
result of feeding this immense tonnage of grain to our stock.
Then again, through our pick-up baler we collect hundreds of
tons of straw, all of which finds its way back to the land through
muck from cattle and pigs. We are not content with collecting our
own straw, but actually go outside our boundaries and collect for
next to nothing in payment some 100 to 200 acres of our neigh-
bour's straw, which they would otherwise burn.
I will not weary the reader with any of the other so-called drying
methods which farmers have tried, and all of which are either
complete or partial failures. These efforts have cost farmers
millions of pounds, and represent a very sad story in the process
of change-over from the binder and the rick to combine-harvesting.
The methods we have installed at Chantry are here for all to see
and examine.
Special Note
I have already indicated that we have abandoned the use of the
Tripod, notwithstanding all its undoubted virtues. Dire economic
necessity was the force compelling us to face this drastic change.
We now make our hay by means of new tackle, all of which has
been invented during the past ten years. Although the hay we
now make is not so good as the Tripod hay, it is 'good enough',
and costs so much less, the making is so much more easily oper-
ated, and by so many fewer hands, that the Tripod is, most
regretfully, a thing of the past as far as we are concerned.
Our methods today consist of the grass being cut by a power-
operated, mid-mounted mower, which works at least twice as fast
as the old trailer mower used to do. The 'tedding' is done by a
Bamford six-wheel 'haymaker', again at a speed that is beyond
. belief. When the hay is 'nearly' made, it is collected by a pick-up
baler attached to which is a 'bale-drop'. These two implements run
tandem-fashion (clearly a time-saver), collect the 'nearly made'
grass or hay, and leave six bales in one place at a time. Later these
are neatly assembled together, as illustrated, and left to 'cure' for
two weeks in the field. When cured, a tractor, trailer, and loader
(running tandem fashion as illustrated) go into the field, collect the
96'
bales, and then the bales are conveyed to the Dutch barns, of
which we have five large constructions. The workers needed to do
the 'making' are one tractor driver for cutting, one for the 'hay-
maker', one for the baler, and two for loading. Actually one man
does the 'cutting', the 'making', and the 'baling'. Only when load-
ing is called for do two men come into the field. Two men are also
wanted to stack in the Dutch barn. Compare this with the army of
men who were needed when we went 'tripodding', and remember,
too, that for rate of working tills new method is speedy beyond
belief. It is difficult to estimate what the financial saving might be,
but roughly I would say it costs not more than one-third the
cost of 'tripodding'. If the new method is managed well the
resulting product is not much inferior to the tripod hay.
97
CHAPTER X
SUBSOILING
nder this title of Subsoiling I intend to cover some very
U wide issues. I shall never forget the time when I came to

Wiltshire in the early days and I ordered my subs oiler .
With this implement I was already very familiar in the other
counties where I had worked and in many parts of Britain, but
subsoiling in Wiltshire, I believe, was almost unknown. The agent
who supplied the machine looked at me, as I said before, as if I
was a specimen fit for the pages of Punch. He saw that I had
observed his consternation and said:
'What on earth do you want a machine like this for 1 In the
course of a hundred years, during which my firm has been in
existence, we have never supplied such an implement before. Why
do you want to use such a thing in a God-forsaken chalk-ridden
country like this l'
That was all he knew about the subsoiler, and the purposes for
which it was designed. He did not know that its use meant to the
average farmer an increase of at least two sacks of corn to the
acre. He did not realize that with some other farmers it might
make all the difference between being able to grow no crop at all
and growing a crop of barley of perhaps fourteen sacks to the
acre. All this was unknown to him, but it was common knowledge
to me, and if there is any mechanical piece of equipment which
tills farm should be grateful for, it is the subsoiler, an implement
made by Ransome, Sims & Jefferies, which is illustrated in these
pages, and which I have put to universal use.
It requires a powerful tractor and usually only the caterpillar is
suitable; not because so much power is needed but rather because
of the grip on the land which cannot be made by a wheeled tractor.
I usually subsoil my land two feet deep, with a single cut every
98
SUBSOILING
four feet. It is important that the tractor should go in its lowest
gear, and that the work should be done slowly, because it is un-
desirable that any of the bottom soil should be brought to the
surface. If the speed of the tractor is very slow this practically
never happens. The purpose of subs oiling is to crack into frag-
ments the underground colloidal pan, so that air and water can
drain down into the deeper strata: by capillary attraction, when
the weather is hot, moisture rises through those cracks, reaching
the roots of the crop near the surface. Moreover, the deep-rooting
plants like cocksfoot grasses, sweet clover, sainfoin, burnet, lucerne
and chicory, and others, appreciate the subs oiler for they go down
to considerable depths and collect minerals which may not always
be available in the surface soil. The use of this implement renders
the artificial manure bag a thing of the past, for if the farmer uses
the subs oiler, there is no argument left in favour of artificial
manures- so vast is the store of minerals and trace elements which
he opens up and which were not available before.
Subsoiling costs vary, of course, on different lands; but on land
like this which we are now farming at Chute the costs as a role
are in the neighbourhood of 20s. to 25s per acre. We try to subsoil
once in eight years. By the use of deep-rooting plants during the
four years' ley we carry out Nature's own subsoiling, and then
during the arable period of cultivation one subsoiling is carried
out: that is all that is necessary, and the 25s. per acre costs can
thus be spread over the eight years of the rotation which we now
follow. Thus the annual cost only amounts to 3s. per acre, and this
is not a serious expense. The machine itself has an almost in-
definite life. Certain spare parts, like the landside, wear out quite
frequently on our land; also 'points' and one or two other like
wearing parts. But these are easily replaced by a few minutes'
fitting and are not very costly in maintenance. The subsoiler is a
sound piece of economy on the farm and it ought to be found on every
farm in Britain, where the soil is deep enough to permit of its use.
So much for the physical and commercial aspects of the sub-
soiler itself. I now propose to show in detail what it does for the
farmer in its practical and scientific application, for no implement,
not even the plough itself, can contribute to good farming to the
same extent.
99
SUBSOILING
To appreciate the value of the subsoiler, let us begin with the
elementary subject of the feeding of the plants. This is entirely
different from the feeding of animals. The animals may live on a
diet of grass in summer and in winter on a pile of straw or man-
golds, hay, silage or any other farm product; at any rate, both the
quantities of food and the nature of it, can be seen and examined
by the eye.
'Whence does the plant derive its food and of what does it con-
sist? Barley-meal is not entirely unlike the bacon which can be
obtained from it, but there is nothing in a garden soil to resemble
the material found, shall we say, in a cabbage or a carrot or
potatoes.'
Now the business of the farmer is to provide suitable feeding
conditions, which means soil condition for his crop, and naturally
he can do this best when he really knows what the crop requires.
At the present moment, many farm.ers are unacquainted with
farming properly as distinct from, shall we say, cow-keeping, or
poultry-keeping, pig-keeping, and so on; but the real farmer, the
farmer who keeps these animals and also tills the soil, grows his
own feeding stuffs and food for humans as well. Such men are the
real farmers and they need to know the materials of which the
crop is composed and how it grows. To an ordinary student of an
agricultural college this information naturally becomes available,
but there are tens of thousands of farmers in this country who have
never been near an agricultural college, some of whom are farming
satisfactorily, others more or less satisfactorily. But comparatively
few can really get down to the subject and tell an inquirer, for
instance, what the plant needs by way of food and how it gets it.
I am starting with these elementary facts to show what part a sub-
soiler plays in helping Nature to feed plants, the seeds of which we
sow in their due seasons.
'To begin with, every plant contains water, even dry seeds con-
taining 12 per cent. Timber contains 40 per cent of water; green
forage and potatoes, 75 per cent; turnips and cabbage, 90 per cent.
If we wish to expel the water we can do so by artificial drying or by
using the rays of the sun, and the resulting product, no matter how
the drying is done, is what we call 'dry matter'. For instance, a ton
of potatoes will yield about 5 cwt. of dry matter and a ton of wheat
100
SUBSOILlNG
will yield somewhere about 17t cwt. The interesting point, how-
ever, is something which, strange though it may seem, very few
farmers seem to know. They talk, for instance, about returning to
the soil all that was taken from it, and I think some of them really
believe that about a hundred per cent of a crop has actually been
obtained from the soil, whereas, as a matter of faqt, only 5 per
cent of any crop comes from the soil, the other 95 per cent coming
from the atmosphere. I propose to submit hereunder a table of
analysis, such as can be found in most modern agricultural text-
books, showing the composition of the matter of a wheat crop,
together with the materials that it needs to make perfect growth.'
The figures apply generally to all crops, but the wheat crop may
be taken as an example. The accompanying statement shows the
approximate composition of a thirty-bushel crop of wheat and the
demands which it makes upon the soil for its support.
COMPOSITION AND REQUIREMENTS

OF A WHEAT CROP
One Acre-
Thirty-bushel Crop Grain Straw Total Foot Soil
crop Contained
lb. lb. lb. lb.

Natural weight 1,890 3,360 5,250 -
Dry matter 1,606 2,856 4,462 3,500,000
Necessary soil constituents ]66 113 279 -
Comprising:
Nitrogen ( = nitric acid) ]31 '0 62·0 193 ·0 15,255
Phosphoric acid 15·0 6·0 21 ·0 1,925
Potash 9·0 20·0 29'0 19,075
Lime 1·0 8·0 9·0 56,770
Magnesia 3·6 3·0 6·6 14,525
Iron oxide 0'4 1·0 1·4 99,785
Sulphuric acid 6'0 13·0 19·0 2,660
Taking the grain at 63 lb. per bushel, and allowing 112 lb. of
straw for each bushel of grain, the weight of the crop at harvest
would be 5,250 lb. This will contain about 15 per cent of moisture,
so that after drying the weight is reduced to 4,462 lb. Of this
weight only some 279 lb. will have to be drawn from the soil, and
101
SUBS OILING
the balance of the crop-equalling 4,183 lb.-will have been
formed from the air and not from the soil at all.
Although a crop does not draw much of its raw materials from
the soil, still the soil materials are highly important, because unless
these are available the crop cannot feed from the air. The air is as
good over barren sand as over the richest fields, but it is only the
latter which can produce large crops.
The soil materials required by a crop always contain seven
different constituents. If anyone of these seven be wanting, the
other six will not enable a crop to feed out of the atmosphere.
It is that soil constituent, therefore, which is scarcest, relatively to
the crop's requirement, which determines the smallness of the yield.
This principle is known as the 'Law of the minimum', and is the
foundation of modern methods of applying manures. Such man-
ures are intended to make good the deficiencies in one or other of
the seven essential constituents of plant food which are drawn
from the soil. 1
'It will be noted that there are no less than seven necessary soil
constituents here. It is interesting to know that one of the argu-
ments used by the advocate of the sale of artificial fertilizers is
that you are robbing the soil of certain mineral constituents and
he arranges to give you what he calls a "complete fertilizer". The
"complete" fertilizer contains the minerals, phosphate, nitrogen
and potash. In addition there is lime, magnesia, iron oxide and sul-
phuric acid, but I do not remember any of the so-called artificial
"complete" fertilizers which claim to include magnesia, iron oxide
or sulphuric acid. Now these are a necessary constituent of crops;
if, therefore, we are growing, say, a wheat crop, and we are going
to cater artificially for the material which we take out of the land,
surely, we ought to replace all of these elements. If the argument is
used that they are there in abundance already and need no re-
placing, I cannot see why Nature, in her bounty, and in the pro-
vision she makes for these other elements, should fail to make
equally good provision for phosphates, for potash and for nitro-
1 Any student at a modem university will be instantly familiar with the
scientific facts and references made in this chapter, as they are reasonably
commonplace in an advanced course in present-day agricultural scholarship.
I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. John W. Paterson for his kind per-
mission to make quotations from his book Science in Agriculture.
102
SUBSOILING
gen. Nature does provide all these things, and provides them
bounteously, though it needs scientific farming in order to be able
to tap them in such a way that they become available. Unless land
contains all these elements-the elements set forth in the fore-
going table- a crop fails to grow satisfactorily. In other words, it
fails to draw from the air the necessary 95 per cent which forms
the bulk of the produce grown.
'By way of a good illustration of this, the Sahara Desert fails
to grow crops, although the air above it is precisely the same as
the air overlying the good soils of the world. Because the Sahara
Desert does not possess the nitrogen, phosphate, potash, lime,
magnesia, iron oxide and sulphuric acid content, the soil will Dot
grow crops; that indeed is the reason why the Sahara is a desert
and why wherever bad farming is indulged in to a sufficient extent
desert conditions are produced; the land is deprived of the neces-
sary constituents to grow crops, which thereby lose their ability
to extract from the air the remaining 95 per cent of their food
components.
'The elementary lesson to be remembered is this, that the soil
material required by a crop always contains these different con-
stituents. Anyone of these seven being wanting, the other six will
not function properly to enable the crop to feed out of the atmo-
sphere. Not only must each of the seven soil constituents be
present, but each must be there in an amount which is not less than
the crop requires. Fortunately for man, and for the permanent
existence of the world as a whole, we know that there are unlimited
quantities of these various minerals in the world's soil.
'The next point we need to understand is the method by which
these minerals are made available. They become available in
solution; that is to say, a crop can only take anyone of its seven
soil constituents in the form of solution; only in that form can it
find its way into the roots of the plant. It will therefore be seen
that the water supply which we usually get in the form of rain is a
very important factor, for without rain we cannot dissolve the
various minerals and we are unable to feed the plant. This is where,
again, subs oiling comes in to help us, for it allows the rainfall to
go through to lower strata, by breaking up into fragments the
lower geological conformation. This water can then rise by cap-
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SUBSOILING
illary attraction with the heat of the sun and becomes useful in the
dissolving of the minerals and in making the consequent solution
available to the plant.
'When we compare the amount of each constituent present in
the soil with the amount of the same constituent required to pro-
duce one crop, it will be seen that there is in each case nearly a
hundred times more than enough to produce one crop. Take
phosphoric acid for example. The figures show 1,925 divided by 21 ,
being equal to 91, so that there should be enough phosphoric acid
to produce 91 crops. This content is quite characteristic of ordinary
farm soil in any part of the world. Why then should crops fre-
quently be unable to get all the soil constituents which they want?
The reason is that they take them through the roots only when
they are in solution, and in soil the great bulk of the food material
is very often present in insoluble forms, that is, in such a condition
that the crop cannot immediately make use of it.'
This is where many other factors, besides chemical factors, come
in to help Nature in her difficulties, and the earthworm, that great
servant of man, is without doubt the most important functionary in
the preservation of life. For the earthworm, assisted again by the
subs oiler, will traverse all the broken land within a considerable
distance of the earth's surface. The earthworm, broadly speaking,
lives on two kinds of food: (1) the mineral of the soil, (2) the
vegetation under and on the top of the soil. The earthworm has a
crop and gizzard, very similar to a chicken, and he consumes his
various minerals and plant foods in much the same way. The
solution to be found in its crop is highly acid. As these minerals
receive their measure of digestion, they pass down the alimentary
tract of the worm: they come in contact with the calciferous gland,
and through it an alkaline solution is made available. The food
eventually finds its way out of the worm in the form of the well-
known worm casts on the surface of the soil. Furthermore, those
' worm casts usually contain about seven times as much available
phosphoric acid as the surrounding soil, five times as much avail-
able nitrogen and eleven times as much available potash. The
tonnage of worm casts to the acre has long ago been established
by calculation and such figures are accepted by the scientific world,
for Darwin it was, who told us that with land that was reasonably
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SUBSOILING
well stocked with a population of earthworms, no less than ten to
fifteen tons per acre of worm casts are made each year, and this
highly fertile mixture of soil minerals and plant food, because of its
solubility, is immediately assimilable to the plants growing on the
land. It will therefore be seen that the worm is the most important
cultivator in the whole farm. Its population, under all circum-
stances, must be maintained, and no act of husbandry must ever
be indulged in which will diminish its numbers. This is perhaps the
most important fact that I would leave with the readers of this
book, for there is no doubt that some of the artificial fertilizers,
particularly those like sulphate of ammonia, do kill the worms.
The same thing is said of superphosphate and also of sulphate
and muriate of potash. About the latter I cannot personally speak
with authority, but I do know that if you take a bag of complete
artificial fertilizers, mix it with a large amount of soil and then put
worms in, it will not be very long before every worm that you have
introduced is dead. Perhaps no greater argument can be advanced
against the use of inorganic fertilizers than the fact that they
destroy the worm population. The worm has perhaps been man's
greatest friend for all time.
It will be appreciated that the part the subsoiler plays in cracking
up the underground pan and in making it possible for the worm
to travel far afield for its own supplies of minerals is a very im-
portant one, and that if the subsoiler did nothing more than this
its use would be justified.
Worm casts are probably of 'organic origin'. The effect of worm
casts on crops, on soil, on the permanent fertility of the land is
immense; they are, in fact, humus makers.
Rainfall is indispensable to fertility and a uniform rainfall is the
most desirable of all farming conditions. These things, however,
cannot be regulated by us, the mere occupants for the time being
of the land of our fathers. All that we can do is to make the best
use of the rain that comes; and in this subsoiling helps us enorm-
ously, for it allows the water falling on the surface of the soil ready
access to the lower strata, before it has had time to evaporate back
into the atmosphere, and if the water can get into the lower strata
it is quite likely that the deep-rooting plants already mentioned,
and the cereal plants like wheat, which is said to have forty-five
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SUBSOILING
miles of root on it, will go down deep for all the moisture they need.
As a rule a dry season suits the wheat crop, and the reason for
this is simply the wheat plant's ability to go down deep for its
moisture, and I am certain that the heavy crops of wheat that I
have had grown on this farm have been partly due to the subsoiling.
'The rainfall of Britain varies enormously. On the west coast of
Scotland and in the English Lake District we find as much as
80-100 in. per year; in Falmouth, 44 in.; in Manchester, 37 in.; in
Bristol 34 in. Along the south coast Dover receives 28 in. On the
eastern shores we have Edinburgh with a record of 24 in., Yar-
mouth with 25 in. and London with 23 in., while the lowest rainfall
of the whole country, 19 in., is claimed by certain parts of Cam-
bridgeshire. One inch of rain is equal to 100 tons of water per acre,
so that a 30-in. rainfall means in the course of a year 3,000 tons of
water having fallen on each acre of land.
'But we have another factor to keep in mind, which is hardly less
important to the farmer than his local rainfall, and that is the rate
at which this water evaporates back into the atmosphere. Evapora-
tion is the converse of rainfall, and in countries where the power
of evaporation is low a low rainfall may be more than sufficient.
Evaporation is increased by low humidity of the air, or by high
temperatures or by wind, and it varies much in different parts of
the world. In different parts of Britain the average evaporation
from a lake will vary from 25 to 75 per cent of the total rainfall
in the district.
'Rainfall and evaporation do not keep an even pace throughout
the year, and in a period of considerable rain much of it percolates
through the ground: and this is where the subsoiling helps us
again. It is important to ascertain how much of the rain falling
on land is actually evaporated, and how much of it sinks into the
ground under average conditions. Rothamsted has kept a record
over a period of some sixty years, and with an average rainfall of
, 29·158 in. it was found that 50·6 per cent drained away to 20 in. of
soil during that period, while the balance of 49·4 per cent was
evaporated into the air. In the warmer months owing to the greater
evaporation less of the rainfall is lost by drainage; thus in the half-
year from October to March 71·5 per cent of the rainfall received
was lost by drainage while in the warmer April to September
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SUBSOILING
period only 27·9 per cent drained away. This land was never under
crop-it was kept purely and simply for recording the rainfall and
the evaporation.'
There is another fact too, not to be forgotten, and that is that
the geological process of the weathering of rocks and denudation,
which originally supplied the earth with its covering of fertile soil,
is still going on. It has been going on for all time and it will go on
for evermore. This weathering is slowly, but very definitely, pro-
viding the earth's surface with further supplies of mineral-sufficient
soil. This does not absolve the farmer, of course, from providing
a good husbandry, especially when we remember the amount of
minerals, taking the world as a whole, that are continuously being
taken from the soil in the form of milk, meat, and other food.
Every townsman ought to learn to appreciate that the elimina-
tion from all the human bodies goes down the lavatory pan,
through the drains, on to the sewage farm, into the rivers or into
the sea. It is, of course, high time that we should cease to indulge
in such scandalous and abominable wastefulness. These products
ought to be carefully preserved, mixed with no end of available
vegetation of all sorts and kinds, and made available to the
farmer, at reasonable prices, by the local authorities so that the
farmer could return them as a valuable fertilizer to the land.
It is a matter of historic interest that the borough authorities of
Southwark, part of the London county, have been carrying out
this practice now for several years. Every year they sell thousands
of pounds' worth of pulverized town waste to farmers, and so are
able to lower the rates to the benefit of the ratepayers in the
district.
The townships of Maidenhead, Leatherhead and Hammersmith
have carried out other schemes. It is only a matter of time for
many more boroughs and cities to do likewise. I have taken part
at Andover with our muck-shifter in demonstrating the compost-
ing of town refuse, and from that demonstration great results are
expected.
Perhaps one of the most important benefits to be derived from
subsoiling is the development of humus in the soil itself. Humus
is the name which is used to cover all the compostable vegetable
matter in the soil. Unless this supply is renewed, by regular addi-
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SUBSOILING
tions of vegetable matter, such as a crop's refuse, farmyard manure
or compost, the quantity of humus in the soil will definitely
decrease. 'We all know that the best part of any farm is nearly
always the farm garden. This desirable result is brought about by
the frequent application of farmyard muck or compost, coupled
with thorough cultivation. By means like these almost any kind
of soil can be made fertile. Manure or compost makes humus and
turns a dead into a living soil, and by degrees will convert a desert
into a land most fertile.
'In a state of Nature the humus supply in soil is the work of
countless small animals, insects, bacteria, fungi, and micro-organ-
isms working on the surface deposit of dead leaves and other falling
vegetation. When the soil is well furnished with mineral content,
such as soils do possess, every crop is better than the one before
it, and the good pasture always goes from good to better. A suit-
able climate is always necessary to effect the best improvement in
any soil. With a poor soil or climate the annual refuse of one
season is sometimes barely sufficient to restore the natural wastage
of humus, and the next crop is poorer than the one before: under
this sort of neglect the poor soil goes from bad to worse until only
an inferior class of herbage can be maintained.
'In addition to these advantages humus confers a variety of
physical benefits on the soil and improves its capacity to hold
moisture from the rain. It loosens up stiff soil such as clay, allow-
ing the free access and circulation of water, while it binds coarse
sand more closely together. Humus, especially when wet, usually
gives a darker colour to soil. There is little humus as a rule in sub-
soil, although I have seen humus sometimes at a considerable
depth, but the change down from the soil to the subsoil is generally
marked by a lighter colour.'l
As I have explained in the chapter on compost, the transforma-
. tion of vegetable matters to form humus and the further changes of
humus within the soil are brought about by various forms of life
and by bacteria and fungi. The number of these amounts in some
cases to five millions per cubic inch of soil. Some kinds of bacteria
can decompose the humus in wet soil and in the absence of air, and
this happens on my four years' ley of which I think so much. But
1 J. Paterson. See note on page 102.
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SUBSOILING
under those conditions decomposition is much slower, and not to
be compared with the decomposition achieved by the Indore com-
posting process. Still, it is practicable: we farmers have to accom-
plish two things; the picture we always have to bear in mind-
while we desire to grow good crops, healthy crops, and food that
will feed a man well and keep him healthy and fit, we also have to
knock a living out of the land by making our harvest pay. In
other words we are carrying on an economic business, and the
system of manufacturing humus by means of a four years' ley of
clover and grass is one of the most economical methods of building
up a high organic or humus content of the soil, and one which
every farmer in one way or another ought to try to adopt.
In any system of ley farming the vegetable matter decays within
the soil and forms humus more gradually than by direct compost-
ing. In the latter stages of decay the valuable nitrogen, phosphoric
acid and potash supplies become available to the crops. Farmyard
manure or compost, of course, can be spread over the sward, and
this helps growth. Where, however, fresh straw is ploughed in
shortly before planting a crop the immediate effect is always to
produce a temporary lowering of fertility until there has been
time for the straw to be converted into humus.
The bacteria causing decay set to work vigorously upon the
fresh straw. They increase rapidly in numbers. They are living
organisms, and it is to be remembered that like the crop plant,
they require the same elements for their growth-namely, nitrogen,
phosphoric acid and potash. Within the soil they thus compete for
these things with the oncoming young crop, and the crop suffers
from the competition. This injurious effect of fresh straw is only a
passing phase because the activities of the germs slow down as the
decay advances; and in the course of time the soil is benefited by
the mineral constituents of the decomposed straw as well as by
such dead bacteria, these being in a condition which eventually
makes them available for future crops. The ultimate result, there-
fore, of ploughing inert straw into the soil is beneficial, but it is
temporarily damaging and should not be indulged in because of
the interference with the immediate crop.
The amount of humus varies considerably in different soils. It
may form the bulk of the dry sample, but in ordinary soils it may
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SUBSOILING
not be more than 5 per cent. This, however, by suitable farming,
such as I think we are following, can be considerably increased.
I am sure that we are increasing it all the time: in all our crops the
effect is almost dramatic.
It shows itself, besides, in the increased healthy stamina and
growth of all the livestock on the farm-in the Galloway cattle, the
Guernsey cattle, the Jersey cattle, and particularly in the race-
horses, for we are now producing a class of racehorse, both in
quality and in size, such as we have never grown before.
Subsoiling and humus content are closely bound up with the
nitrogen which humus and the soil generally contain; moreover
the chemical changes in the decay of humus are bound up with the
supply of combined nitrogen required for all the growing crops.
There are three actions to be noted-nitrification, denitrification
and the fixation of free nitrogen.
'Ordinary crops, such as wheat for instance, cannot use the free
nitrogen in the air. They must obtain their combined nitrogen from
the soil. Humus supplies this. Indeed, the soil's stock supply of
nitrogen at any time is always contained in the humus. A soil
without humus, therefore, is probably without nitrogen, but humus
cannot directly satisfy the demands of the crops for combined
nitrogen. The nitrogen is not in a proper form of combination,
and, moreover, it is too insoluble. Crops cannot use it. The nitro-
gen of humus must first be changed into simpler compounds of
nitrogen within the soil.'l
From what Paterson tells us it will be seen what an important
part the subsoiler plays in the preparation and the manufacture of
humus, and in the chemical development in its many forms. Hav-
ing regard to the fact that the subs oiler is a creation of compara-
tively recent times, it is really surprising that fertility has been
maintained as well as it has been throughout the ages.
Then we are told that in the fixation of free nitrogen-one of the
most important acts that take place in our soil-there are two kinds
of bacteria operative, one which is aerobic and another which is
anaerobic. These two are able to combine with free atmospheric
nitrogen, and leave it in the soil for the use of crops.
These nitrogen gainers are to be found in humus and work only
1 Paterson, see p. 1020.
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SUBSOILlNG
when easily oxidizable humus is present in the soil. This again
emphasizes the need of subs oiling. For with subs oiling the soil is
enriched by nitrogen, apart from any nitrogen originally present
in the humus. The ploughing in of stubble or straw can cause some
gain of nitrogen from the air.
It may be mentioned in passing that all the various changes
which take place in decay and development of humus in the soil,
and in the nitrogen of soil connecting therewith, are each of them
the work of micro-organisms, fungi, earthworms, and bacteria. If
a soil is in any way artificially sterilized, whether it is by heat or an
antiseptic, or by sulphate of ammonia, nitrate of soda, nitro chalk,
or even by phosphates or sulphates and muriates of potash, these
changes are, if they are not suspended altogether, most definitely
interfered with.
A good supply of humus stimulates the bacterial life of the soil.
Another important matter in which subsoiling helps the growth
of crops and the ordinary respiration in the presence of free oxygen
in the atmosphere is what is called anaerobic respiration.
'One of the most familiar physiological processes in living ani-
mals is respiration. The oxygen of the air is inspired into the lungs
and carbon dioxide gas is breathed out into the atmosphere. So
long as life exists respiration goes on continuously, and one of the
certain signs of death is the cessation of tbis process. Respiration,
however, is not confined to animals, but is a function of all the
ordinary plants, and is as necessary to their existence as it is to the
existence of animals.
'In ordinary farm and garden practice, plants above ground
always obtain sufficient oxygen for all their requirements, but the
roots of plants are often seriously injured through want of a suit-
able supply of fresh air in the soil.'
Seeds, for instance, buried too deeply do not obtain sufficient
fresh air for normal respiration, and either do not germinate at all
or do so in an unsatisfactory manner. Among the many advantages
of subsoiling, this fact of introducing oxygen to the soil itself to
increase plant growth is of enormous importance as will be
shown by a practical experience which I shall describe later in this
chapter.
When I first came to Chantry I brought a Yorkshire farmer
K 111
SUBSOILING
friend to view the property, and in supreme disgust, after we had
surveyed the whole estate, he turned to me and said:
'1 think that you are either ready for a lunatic asylum, or that
you know much more about farming than ever 1 hope to learn.
This is not a farm-it is just space out of doors-and worse
material would be difficult to find.' 1 have already mentioned him.
If 1 have at all altered the appearance of the countryside where
I now live it is, I think, due partly to my knowledge of the part
which respiration plays in the life of a plant. In the early days of
our occupation here, every summer we used to suffer from very
severe droughts. All the countryside was like a desert- burned,
scorched and arid. We still suffer from the same spring and sum-
mer droughts, but the whole of my countryside is now one beautiful
mass of green.
What makes this possible? The answer is one word-the sub-
soiler. IfI am to explain how the subsoiler has effected this change,
I must first explain the meaning of the term transpiration ratio.
From all parts of an ordinary land plant there is a continual
invisible loss of water in the form of vapour.
'The loss of water in the form of vapour from living plants is
termed transpiration. An average crop of cabbages gives off an
estimated three to four tons of water per acre per day.'
Every farmer should know something about the transpiration
ratio and current, because it affects his industry perhaps more than
any other single factor. If subs oiling is carried out in a systematic
way on every farm, let us say, at least once in eight years, and is
combined at other times with the growing of the deep-rooting
grasses and legumes, all the physical arrangements are satisfac-
torily completed for permanently maintaining a transpiration
current of water. That brings us back to the subject of rainfall and
I would here repeat that, remembering one inch of rain makes a
tonnage of 100 tons to the acre, a 30-in. rainfall would therefore
provide that acre with 3,000 tons of water; but if 50 per cent of that
water is evaporated as a result of climatic conditions, it means
actually that some 1,500 tons only of water which fell upon that
acre penetrated the ground. Now if subsoiling is done, a greater
proportion of the rainfall really does run through and into the
subsoil and is more or less retained there. If, in addition to that,
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SUBSOILING
an adequate supply of compost or farmyard muck, or humus
made by the manufacture of sheet compost, has been made avail-
able through the system of ley farming having been adopted, there
is a further physical reservoir for collecting and holding much or
all of the water which has fallen on the land.
When we study figures showing what the transpiration ratio calls
for in the production of a crop, we are really appalled at the
amount of water that is needed for the growing of all crops.
'One eminent authority tells us that:
'The effect of manure upon transpiration ration-
Wheat Without manure 850 tons of water
With farmyard manure 530 tons of water
Barley Without manure 680 tons of water
With farmyard manure 480 tons of water
Peas Without manure 830 tons of water
With farmyard manure 530 tons of water'l
Thus, we are always forced back to the necessity for manuring,
and manuring always with all the humus we can lay our hands on.
In addition to this we must subsoil, so as to retain most of the rain-
fall that the Almighty hands down to us. By suitable manuring
with farmyard muck or compost a crop can make a better use of
the water present in the soil.
At this juncture I can almost hear impatient stamping of feet of
thousands of my reading audience, exploding with a desire to tell
me, that while all this discourse on Subsoiling is of academic
interest, it is a sheer waste of time so far as they are concerned,
because the soils upon which they are farming are of no more
than four inches over the bare rock.
My reply is, there are none to whom this matter is so important
as to those so situated.
It is out of the question, of course, that the Ransomes Subsoiler
can be brought into operation. But I hope that I have made it clear
that of all Subsoilers there is nothing yet man-made that can equal
Nature's own deep-rooting plants for effective subs oiling work,
although they are slower in action in the early stages.
But it is a matter of importance that the Shallow-land Farmer,
1 Paterson.
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SUBSOILING
overlying the rock, should incorporate the Four Years' Deep
Rooting ley. He will find roots like chicory, sweet clover, lucerne,
sainfoin, cocksfoot, burnet, will establish themselves, will batten
on to the rock faces, seeking any slight crevasse. Down these they
will send their penetrating gimlet-like feelers, splitting and break-
ing the rock. With the dissolving juices from the plant's own
eliminating-root-system they will further denude the rock, reducing
it to infinitely fine particles, separating its minerals, absorbing the
solvent of them, making passages and fissures as they probe,
eventually so reducing the rock that other micro-organisms and
even earthworms can enter; thus plants and other living inmates
of the soil will work together to take from that rock the minerals
and trace elements they need, bringing these into general circula-
tion in the topsoil, partly through earthworm casts, and partly
though the growth of the plants, which, being consumed in situ by the
grazing animal, return those minerals to the soil in dung and urine.
At this point my 'artificially minded' critics, whose recent plea,
'Yes, we always agreed that humus was necessary. We seek not to
displace humus, which is indispensable, but to augment the sup-
plies of humus by the additions of those minerals which the world's
insufficient supplies of humus are failing to return to the soils. And
here in this instance of the shallow-land farmer, here is a case
where the addition of artificials is called for. Obviously limited
supplies of phosphates and potash which should be augmented
by the addition of those ingredients.'
Now if this was the alpha and omega of the whole of this argu-
ment there might be very little left for me to say, but this angle of
thought of supplying deficiencies by chemical and mathematical
calculations is fundamentally unsound, and springs out of the
brains of those who are not farmers in practice, and whose associa-
tion with the soil is usually through the fleeting acquaintance with
it in the laboratory experiment. For if they were really practical
farmers, endowed with keen instinct for natural observation, they
would know the elementary basic law, common to every form of
life, whether it be the lowliest micro-organism of the soil, plant,
animal or man-the line of least resistance.
If this topsoil of only four inches suffers from what the modern
soil-scientist calls 'deficiencies', so far as the plants are concerned,
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SUBSOILING
this means that they have to work doubly hard to secure the nu-
trients that they need. If they do not find what they want in the 'four
inches', then they turn to the rock, probe about for its soft-places,
cracks and fissures, eliminate their organic juices (their dung and
urine), reduce the rock by denudation, fragment ate its minerals,
and get out of it what they need. As explained, this is·then brought
into general circulation in the topsoil through the grazing. animal,
and so the mineral content of the topsoil is not exhausted, but is
continuously and copiously increased by this process, one of
Nature's own.
If on the other hand we take advice of the soil-scientist- he will
say, 'But here is the very case for the usefulness of the artificials.
The plants need it, let them have it easily, out of the bag.' And
acting on his advice, we do; the plants instantly turn their hard-
working roots upwards instead of downwards. True to their basic
natural law, they take the line of least resistance.
And this is no creature of my own imagination, for every myco-
logist of experience will confirm these facts. It is being everywhere
proved that the provision of artificials means less work for the soil
organisms to perform, and this may eventually bring about the
complete desolation of the world's soil and the extermination of
all living matter, including man.
If, for instance, we apply ammonium sulphate to clover, the
clover roots cease to form nitrogen-forming nodules. Indeed, why
should the clover work hard to get its nitrogen from the air, when
it can get its supplies so much more easily from the bag? But if this
insane practice is continued unabated and with increasing force,
we will one day have a soil without nitrogen-forming bacteria, and
when that happens man is right at the end of his tether, for without
nitrogen we cannot live. It remains one of the most curious defects
of nature that animals and higher plants- although passing their
lives bathed in air the greater part of which is nitrogen gas- are
yet unable to use this nitrogen, although they need it to build up
their own living matter. Their only agency through whom this in-
dispensable life-giving element can be obtained are certain bacteria
of the soil, certain algae and perhaps fungi. Without the services
of these lowly organisms man cannot survive. 'How slender is the
thread upon which the whole economy of life depends.'
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SUBSOILING
Leaving all the theories, practices and arguments to the scientists
to whom, let me say, we all owe so much, and getting down to a
practical level, we are all likely to agree that an ounce of fact is
worth a ton of scientific theory. I will, therefore, conclude this
chapter by giving some of my own experiences of what can be
directly attributable to subsoiling and good cultivation, and I will
begin with one thirty-acre field.
It was down in permanent pasture for more years than many of
us can remember. It was ploughed and pressed by the previous
tenant before he left the farm, and sown to oats. The whole field
was a failure. I then took it on, realized what was the trouble, and
determined at once to subsoil it. I subsoiled about ten acres of the
thirty when my subsoiler broke. On the part which had been sub~
soiled I ultimately grew something like fourteen sacks of barley to
the acre, while on the rest of the field there was practically no crop
at all-it was as much a failure as it had been the previous year in
oats. The following year the field was fallowed and subsoiled-it
was then sown to wheat and some thirteen sacks to the acre were
ultimately obtained. This was entirely due to subsoiling. No
manures of any kind in any of the operations were applied.
Another field was down in permanent pasture, ploughed up, and
on the upturned sod an oat crop was sown. Twenty acres of the
thirty acres failed to produce anything. Although the seeds ger-
minated they failed to develop, and we got no crop at all for twenty
acres. Again, subsoiling was practised and the following year a
very heavy crop of wheat followed and that was succeeded by a
further very heavy crop of barley. In both cases no artificials and
no farmyard muck or compost were applied to the land-the
improvements were entirely due to subs oiling.
Another field of fifteen acres was well known for producing
nothing at all. Again the subsoiler was applied and although it is
n~turally a very poor field, and needs a lot of manure of the farm-
yard muck kind to put it right, we are now getting quite good
crops-once more, entirely due to subsoiling.
I will content myself with just one other notable example of the
value of subsoiling and its immediate effects. One field of twenty-
five acres was ploughed up from an old pasture. On the upturned
sod seeds were sown and over twenty-two sacks of oats were
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SUBSOlLING
reaped. Previous to this, an analysis of the soil had been taken and
deficiencies of lime, phosphate and potash, were recorded. This
analysis was made by someone who gave me a chemical prescription
to put the field right. I did not act upon that prescription; on the
contrary, I did just as I have stated. After harvest the land was
immediately ploughed again and Vilmorin 27 wheat was sown;
between thirteen and fourteen sacks to the acre were harvested.
By this time the couch and other perennial weeds had so suffo-
cated the field that it became impossible to think of growing
another crop, and we were bound to give it a summer fallow. The
land was ploughed several times, cultivated and harrowed. It was
also subsoiled and then the next autumn it was sown again to
Vilmorin 27 wheat and an even greater crop was harvested. This
field on a second chemical test was alleged to be deficient in phos-
phates, a most necessary element if a good crop is to be grown.
But after subsequent cultivation and subsoiling, all these ingredi-
ents were found to be present, and the land has been restored to
health and balance without the addition of either farmyard muck
or artificial chemicals. This proves to me as a farmer, that there
is in the soil a reservoir of mineral fertility of all the necessary
kinds, if the farmer will only tap it and set it to work, with the
appliances that are now available in this age of mechanical inven-
117
SUBSOILING
tion. If, in addition, the farmer will refertilize by habitual applica-
tions of farmyard muck, by growing a variety of grasses, deep-
rooting clovers and legumes, and will graze heavily, he will
maintain the phosphatic, potash and nitrogen content of his soil
and he will be able to hand it forward to succeeding occupiers in a
better condition than that in which he found it.
I should like also to explain the subsoiler's contribution to the
maintenance of fertility, and reasons for ignorance about this
matter. Among many diseases of mind from which the average
farmer may suffer there is no conception more fundamentally
mischievous than 'the top six inches of the soil complex'. This is
accepted almost everywhere. All calculation estimating the soil's
fertility is based upon what the top six inches contain. Analyses
never go below this depth for their samples, and conclusions
reached only refer to this thin layer of earth.
Why allow scientific investigations to begin and end with this
small amount of soil? Examine Nature's ways and ascertain
whether she confines her own efforts, and the uses she makes of
the minerals of the earth, to these top six inches. What happens in
the forest?
The tree goes down in search of its ingredients to an enormous
depth, sending down tap-roots and feelers everywhere, combing
the subsoil in all directions for the minerals and trace-elements it
calls for. Each year the tree faithfully adds rings of growth to its
girth, and in the autumn sheds its copious crop of leaves. These
contain the phosphates, potash and trace-elements in organic form
which the tree has taken from the depths below. In this way the
mineral content of the surface soil is increased in ever-growing
proportion, and by the annual decay of leaves a continuous supply
of humus is provided near the surface, where that all-important
material should always remain.
In my understanding as a husbandman, where I have contrived
at all times to imitate Nature as the supreme farmer, I create a
four years' ley, containing all those deep-rooting plants like sweet
clover, sainfoin, lucerne, burnet, chicory, cocksfoot. Here is an
array of tree-like agents, who go deep down into the depths for
their minerals and trace-elements. The resulting green mantle
covering the earth is consumed in situ by animals, and through
118
SUBSOILING
their dung and urine all the essential minerals eventually find their
place, mingled with accumulating humus, and come into circula-
tion in the surface soil. The activity of the earthworm further
augments the supply of minerals provided by the deep-rooting
plants.
With a system of alternate husbandry such as the four years' ley,
four years' arable, where the subs oiler finds its place to break up
the plough-pan to enable the deep-rooters to establish themselves,
and find easy access to a new and enormous store of untapped
minerals, there never can arise a deficiency in any kind of mineral
food.
And if farming lasts a million years, so long as husbandry faith-
fully copies Nature's cycle as exemplified in the forest, with its Law
of Return, no mineral or humus deficiency will ever be found.
The subsoiler is the preliminary implement to bring a neglected
farm-or one soaked for years in artificials-back into good
healthy balance, where a new store of deep minerals will be tapped,
a vigorous manufacturing of humus set agoing, and all be an
essential initial process of the humus-and-rnineral-sufficient farm
of the future.
119
CHAPTER XI
CUL TIV ATIONS AND THEIR PURPOSE

ultivation ought to be so well understood by all farmers
C that there should be no need to refer to the subject at all;

but after I had attended quite a number of War Agricultural
Executive Committee demonstrations, I found that there was still a
lack of knowledge among many farmers as to the real value of
cultivations. I have frequently been asked how it is, on such high
land, of obviously little value, I have succeeded in growing such
exceptional crops, and I have had to explain that in great measure
it is due to cultivations, thoroughly carried out.
We all know that good cultivation is necessary in order to get
the best results. I regress: 'In early times the operation of
ploughing and harrowing were usually very badly performed, and
I am sorry to say that some of the wurk that I see carried out even
in the year 1944 leaves much to be desired. In the old days this
inefficiency was partly due to the lack of proper implements, and
sometimes to the ploughman. In 1733 there lived an English farmer,
not more than six miles from where I now live, namely Jethro Tull.
He called attention to cultivations and told the world that his
large crops were obtained simply by his thoroughness in ploughing
and general cultivation. Tull even went so far as to claim that good
cultivation was of itself sufficient to maintain the fertility of the
soil, and that where it was practised the need for manures would
never arise. This, of course, is going much too far. He could
scarcely be more wrong, but a valuable service at any rate was
. done to the farmers of his generation by drawing attention to his
system of thorough cultivation, the value of which, up to that
time, had not been properly appreciated.'
The first act of cultivation is to plough the land. It is the first
step, and it needs to be done, in my opinion, in a very thorough-
going and workmanlike fashion.
120
CULTIVATIONS AND THEIR PURPOSE
'The purpose of ploughing is to loosen the soil and then invert
it, thus exposing a fresh surface to both sun and air. The eventual
result is that water and air can enter the soil quite freely, and the
various processes are started whereby food minerals are rendered
available. Ploughing also affords a means of burying weeds, crop
residues, and farmyard manure, compost and so forth, under the
surface, so that they are converted into humus at the place where
they do most good.
'Another important object in ploughing is to secure what the
farmer calls a good tilth, and this problem is not always easily
achieved, especially on clay soil. Here, as indeed everywhere,
autumn ploughing is desirable in order to obtain the pulverizing
action of probable winter frosts, and also to assist drying out in
spring. Ploughing if done up and down a slope assists drainage;
the surface should be left rough to increase the likelihood of sur-
face caking. In spring, the shallow cultivation or cross ploughing
on such land, followed by harrowing, will usually provide a
crumbly tilth for spring-sown crops.'
The most important contribution I can make to this subject of
ploughing will be a description of my own system and of the
ploughs which I use. On different lands, different ploughs function
better than others, and I have found as a result of experiments
that the plough best suited to my own peculiar conditions is the
one which is made by Ransomes, Sims and Jefferies; it is a tractor-
mounted plough, fitted with semi-digger body of the I.R.D.C.P.T.
type. It is of the Scottish semi-digger pattern, and well suited to my
peculiar land. The plough points are divided into three parts,
instead of all being in one piece and this, on my stony land, results
in great economy in plough-point replacements.
As a result of employing this particular kind of plough my cost
of ploughing has been reduced considerably on these lands. This
plough is remarkable for extremely strong design in detail and for
utter freedom from trouble in every way. The ease of and perfect
adjustment emphasizes its scientific design. Ransomes, Sims and
Jefferies are probably the largest plough makers in the world;
perhaps the most knowledgeable people on the subject of plough-
ing to be found in any country, and they make no less than two
hundred different models of ploughs. The reader will readily
121
appreciate what a vast difference there must be from one county
to another, from one land to another, which calls for so many
different designs. And once, when I was discussing this matter
with their managing director, Mr. Henry Deck, and ventured to
make a suggestion that surely all these designs were not necessary,
he told me that in his experience each of all these different designs
had its peculiar advantage, and that he was not prepared to take
a firm line and say that they were not needed.
Having said so much about the ploughs that are used and their
design, I now wish to draw the attention of all cultivators of the
land, to the extreme importance which I attach to ploughing
'shallow'.
What do I mean by the word 'shallow'? In my view, which is
based upon my own experience and observations, the highest
degree of fertility in most soil is very near the surface. When I say
this I do not include the mineral content of the soil and I am
referring more particularly to the humus composition. With cer-
tain exceptions most plants are somewhat shallow-rooted and
spread their feelers throughout the surface soil in search of the
foods which they need. If, therefore, a four years' ley sward is
ploughed under much too deeply-say nine inches-that sward is
put below the usual depth to which the average shallow root will
penetrate. Furthermore, it brings to the surface a soil of another
composition altogether, sometimes entirely devoid of humus con-
tent, which lies near the surface soil and under the influence of
frost and sun soon becomes exhausted of its moisture. While a soil
containing a high percentage of humus will absorb an enormous
quantity of water.
From every point of view it is desirable that the humus should
not be buried too deeply because, apart from its great refertilizing
qualities, its ability to feed and breed countless micro-organisms,
.and its many other faculties working for the good of the land, one
of the most important functions of humus is its volumetric capacity
to absorb water. I estimate that one cubic foot of bone dry humus
will absorb fully 60 lb. of water. It is just like a sponge and will
absorb its volumetric capacity without in any way altering its
shape or physical characteristics. Thus it provides a continuous
reservoir of moisture upon which the growing plant can draw. But
122
CULTIV A TIONS AND THEIR PURPOSE
if this humus is ploughed too deeply its tendency to draw moisture
into itself-like blotting paper-is such that it will probably make
the soil now lying above it drier than if there were no humus in
the land at all. It is of the utmost importance therefore, if the full
benefit of humus farming is to be enjoyed, that deep ploughing
should not generally be practised. At Chantry we try to plough no
more than four inches deep, and we thus keep the whole of our
surface soils full of humus-I believe this is the real secret of the
mammoth crops which we are growing.
Another important result of this 'shallow' ploughing is the newly
acquired ability of the soil to collect and retain water. Soil erosion,
even on fairly steep banks, when the humus content is high, does
not occur. Moreover, where the top few inches are heavily charged
with humus, it is seldom to be seen that water 'runs off' either
from the surface or through any pipe-line in the soil.
I had a visit some months ago from a very eminent Scottish
farmer who told me that it was his custom to plough his land no
less than eighteen inches deep. I told him that he was making a
great mistake and that I thought on his rich soil that he would get
equal, or possibly much better crops of every kind, potatoes in-
cluded, if he did not plough so deeply. He was so impressed with
what he saw at Chantry during his visit that he went away deter-
mined to put some of my practices into use on his farm.
When the world talks of cultivators, they instinctively think of
Ransomes, Sims and Jefferies. Their Cultivators are veritable
wizards. They are continuously active, and keep the soil in per-
petual stirring movement when the implement is in motion.
When we come to the harrow, I do not yet know anything which
is better than the old-fashioned Zig-zag. My particular models are
made by the Bedford Plough Company of Bedford and are run in
section gangs no less than seven yards wide, which admit of a great
area of cultivation being performed by a powerful tractor in a
short time.
Another important item are the rollers. Rollers are of two kinds
-the plain roller which is used for the grassland, and the ring-
roller which is used for the arable. These are twenty-one feet wide,
in three sections, and are pulled by powerful tractors.
Good quality tackle is absolutely essential for good farming.
123
Cheap tackle, apart from the fact that it often breaks down, leads
to a degree of inefficiency within the working staff which cannot
be estimated, and is bound to result in bad farming. We want our
tackle as cheap as the manufacturers can let us have it, but this
cheapness must not be at the expense of qUality. Many of the
implements that are today made for the farmer are not nearly so
good as they might be, although this lack of quality is frequently
due to the fact that the farmer will not layout as much money
on his tackle as he ought.
He cannot be entirely blamed for this, however, when we look
back over the hundred years of farming decline through which he
has tried to survive. He has had a thin time, and he has lived, so
far as implements are concerned, by buying at farm sales one piece
of discarded or derelict machinery after another, which some other
farmer has either aband(med or has left behind him at his death.
Before the war only the best and the most far-seeing farmers
ever thought of buying new implements. 'I goes to farm sales and
what 1 buys there I makes them do me.' What that worn-out tackle
eventually used to cost them, by breakdowns occurring at critical
moments when 'time is the essence of the contract', they never
knew, for they seldom kept books or records of costs.
When a farmer is broke, it takes a long view to induce him to
spend £150 on a binder to harvest a crop, which has been grown
at a heavy loss. How, indeed, have the farmers survived? Can you
complain of the mentality which directed them to farm sales where
the rubbish being sold was all they could afford to buy?
I am allowing all the above, which I wrote in 1944, to stand,

because technically I cannot improve upon it. When we consider
the advance of mechanical aids, however, the change has been so
marked that I want to dwell upon the tackle we are using now,
in order that the reader can appreciate the advances that have taken
place in so few years.
Take the plough itself. We still use the semi-digger body, and
points. These cannot be improved upon. But just compare the
Ransomes Multi-trac, fitted with these bodies, and four fur-
rows, with the modern hydraulic four-furrow-mounted plough.
This latter does as good a job as the old multi-trac literally in
124
half to two-thirds of the time. Then again, it is impressive to see
how quickly the new plough can turn at the headlands, and
how still more rapidly it can travel from one distant point on the
estate to another. This latter feature cannot be over-emphasized,
for the time wasted in transporting tackle from place to place with
the old trailer implements was an added cost which is now saved
completely. Even the subs oiler may one day be mounted. The
cultivator is also mounted, and here the speed of working even
exceeds that of the plough, and does a more effective job than the
old and revered equitine.
The old Case tractors have given place to the new Fordson
diesel, a tractor which, at this time of writing, stands alone as the
most efficient multi-purpose tractor yet built. It may be super-
seded, of course, in the course of a few years. But that is modern
progress.
125
CHAPTER XII
COMPOSITION OF MANURES
my lectures I am frequently asked to make comparisons in

manurial values. One question that some of my listeners
often ask is 'What is the difference between the manurial
val ue of fresh farmyard manure and compost?'
'Farmyard manure generally is made up of the solid and liquid
excrement of farm animals, together with straw or litter. Animals
cannot manufacture phosphoric acid, potash and nitrogen. The
value of the manure, therefore, must depend to some extent upon
the character of the food the animals consume. Indeed, the charac-
ter of the food is easily the most important factor in determining
the constituent value of fresh manure. When food is digested and
assimilated by an animal, its manurial constituents are separated.
In animals living on vegetation the phosphoric acid and the un-
digested nitrogen of the food appear usually in the solid excre-
ments, while the digested nitrogen and most of the potash are
excreted in the urine.
'Fresh farmyard manure takes much of its chemical value from
the nitrogen which it contains. If the food is difficult to digest, the
chief value will be in the solid excrement; on the other hand, if the
food is easily digested the urine will have the greater value.'
When cows are in pasture, or fed on concentrated food, the
urine will contain about three times the value of solid manure so
far as chemical fertilizing constituents are concerned; that is why
it is important to make a liberal use of litter so as to absorb the
liquid portion and avoid losing this valuable part of the manure.
The values of manure obtained from the consumption of one kind
of food can easily be calculated, and there are many authorities
which have established figures.
'Work-horses iffuUy grown return 100 per cent of the nitrogen,
126
phosphoric acid and potash present in the original food and these
are recovered to this extent in the manure.
'With fattening cattle or sheep the percentage is usually about
95, with fattening pigs 85 per cent, with milk cows 75 per cent.
'Much attention has been given in this country to the manurial
value of one ton of different kinds of food. In Scotland, for in-
stance, as recently as 1938 the following values have been arrived
at as a working basis for compensation by valuers acting for an
outgoing tenant:
'Linseed cake 25s. 6d. per ton, beans 19s. lld. per ton, oats
9s. lId. per ton, bran 21s. per ton, clover hay 14s. Id. per ton,
wheat straw 4s. lid. per ton.'
These figures are quoted for illustration, and are indicative of
the value of the manure resulting from the consumption of one
ton of such foods. The values have to be calculated each year, as
they are related to the varying costs of compound artificial
manures.
The most expensive constituent in such manures is always nitro-
gen, and generally speaking, those foods supplying most nitrogen,
in proteins for example, leave behind the highest chemical residues.
Farmyard manure decomposes rapidly, and during the process
it loses weight, and also some of the fertilizing material. It is im-
portant therefore to learn how to treat farmyard muck if you
would avoid unnecessary losses in this way.
It is suggested that in some experiments five tons of fresh manure
were reduced to four tons when half-rotted and to three tons when
it could be cut with a spade. I am not in a position to check these
figures because I have seen great variations of diminishing weights
and volumes. There is no doubt that even when you are making
compost the finished tonnage is very much less than what you
start with in the raw materials of fresh farmyard manure. Rotted
material-especially when reduced to compost-is much more
active than fresh manure ton for ton, and if it is properly protected
and made according to the specifications set out in this book the
percentage of fertilizing ingredients which are lost should be nil,
while the increased population of refertilizing revitalized organisms
of all kinds is of an incalculable advantage.
This does not mean, however, that a farmer, because he makes
L 127
compost, can be reckless in the treatment of his fresh farmyard
muck. On the contrary he should exercise the greatest possible care
at all times, and use great skill in his methods, and see to it that no
undue losses are sustained. I have often been in farmyards, and
seen that valuable dark brown liquid draining away from a manure
heap, a liquid which is rich in fertilizing substances, particularly
potash and nitrogen.
Such avoidable losses are criminal, and a farmer who stands by
and coolly sees such invaluable fertilizers go down the drain, and
then foolishly buys the presumed equivalent of that wasted material
in an inorganic salt, is neither a good farmer nor a good business
man-he is extremely stupid, and yet there are few farmers in this
country who have not been guilty of this crime at one time or
another. There may be losses by volatilization, and these again are
the result of changes brought about by bacterial organisms and
sometimes due to the heat they develop. The losses in manurial
constituents are principally confined to nitrogen which passes off
as ammonia. The nitrogen loss in this way is estimated to amount
sometimes to as much as one-half of the original nitrogen content.
This escape can be enormously minimized by care in management,
but it is greatest when the heap is loose, and allowed to become
too dry. Compacting the heap and moistening it with a portable
water pump, whenever necessary, reduces this loss considerably.
Add a little ground limestone or chalk, but it is unwise to add any
burnt lime (calcium oxide) to the manure heap during compo sting.
One of the best ways of fixing ammonia is to mix a few shovelfuls
of loamy soil from time to time over the compost heap as it is
being assembled. By this means ammonia is readily absorbed by
the covering of the earth, and I strongly recommend, both from
the point of view of making as much compost as possible and of
avoiding this possible loss of valuable ingredients, that this practice
should be rigidly followed; for it must be remembered that as a
source of plant food good farmyard manure is particularly rich in
available nitrogen, and this can easily be demonstrated, at any
time, by observing that wherever it is applied to the land there is
always a dark green foliage.
As to the loss of nitrogen in the manufacture of compost-a
question which always comes up at my meetings-first of all, the
128
student should realize the fundamental truth that the farmyard
manure heap and the compost heap are not the same thing.
In a farmyard manure heap some of the nitrogen wastes have
not been built up into microbial tissue because there is invariably
hopelessly insufficient vegetable matter in the form of waste straw
or other waste vegetation. If such wastes come in . contact with
quicklime or slake lime, they may and probably will give off
ammonia, and so lead to an inevitable loss of nitrogen, and at
everyone of my meetings I emphasize the absolute necessity for
this reason of not introducing either quicklime or slake lime into
the compost-making process. Furthermore, it is not new even to
the most uninformed farmer that lime and muck should never be
put on the land together.
But the addition of carbonate of lime is a factor of another kind
altogether. Carbonate of lime usually contains only half the per-
centage of lime contained in the average calcium oxide, quicklime,
or slake lime, The carbonate of lime acts much more slowly, and
it does not cause the same intense chemical disturbance. On the
contrary, the carbonate belps to keep the mass offarmyard manure
from becoming too acid, a condition which checks microbial
development.
This latter necessity calls for the introduction of a 'base' which
helps the fungi to build up the nitrogenous wastes into mycelium,
where the nitrogen is automatically safe and properly cared for.
Eventually the mycelium, a living organism itself, dies and finally
amalgamates with the lignified cellulose to form humus. In humus,
all the nitrogen and other things are safe, and are not leached out
of the soil or destroyed by any spare carbonate of lime or calcium
oxide that may be available.
It is well to remember that the safest 'base' to use in compo sting
is ordinary soil. This, however, needs a slight qualification inas-
much as soil, in order to do its work properly, itself needs to have
been got into good condition by the necessary subs oiling, cultiva-
tions, and the usage of deep-rooting leys, legumes and grasses. But
before this stage is reached we have often to deal with sour and
acid soils, and in these cases powdered chalk or powdered ground
limestone become the next best expedients to use as a 'base'. Again,
I must draw attention to the fact that ground limestone is some-
129
times very impure and contains all sorts of other elements besides
calcium.
It must be our aim always to replace the old wasteful muck heap
by the more scientific compost heap, and in this way to manufac-
ture real humus as soon as possible after the dung has been dropped
in the cowsheds or stables or piggeries.
In some of the experiments that were carried out in India, so far
from there being a loss of nitrogen as a result of the manufacture
~f compost, there actually was a considerable increase of nitrogen
fixation-even up to an extent of 25 per cent in some of the experi-
ments at Indore.
Briefly stated, therefore, if the farmer who makes compost care-
fully is particular to see that his compost heap is adequately aerated
by the specified number of turnings, and the water supply is
adequate without being excessive, and he introduces plenty of soil,
but not too much, he will find the manufacture of compost, as
compared with that of farmyard muck, will all the time improve
his chemical analysis of the final product, for all the nitrogen
will have gone into microbial tissues of the organisms which
break down the vegetable wastes and, finally, into the finished
humus.
I must admit here that I have had some little difficulty in con-
vincing farmers that the final product of humus, which is made out
of farmyard manure as to one part, and waste vegetation in the
form of straw and other things as to four or five parts, could be an
even better 'chemical' fertilizer than the original farmyard muck.
The old and ignorant misconception that the greater the amount
of excrement and urine to be found in the farmyard muck the
greater its fertilizing value, requires much eloquence to dislodge.
The farmer simply cannot believe that straw, as he understands it,
could ever be as good as the excreta and urine. And yet this
fundamental fact needs to be grasped by everyone.
. In the manufacture of compost there are biological changes
taking place, as well as chemical changes which render the finished
humus-even from a purely chemical point of view-of far greater
value than the original excreta and urine. I cannot emphasize this
point too strongly. As a result we have a finished product of
enormous refertilization value, and (what is still more important)
130
the pabulum for the myriads of organisms in the soil through
which the plant receives its sustenance.
This issue goes right down to establishing the fundamental
difference between the methods of refertilization provided by the
artificial manures on the one hand and by humus on the other.
Quite apart from the fact, insisted on by the soil biologist, that the
artificial, because of its manifold obvious incompleteness, does not
make good the soil deficiencies, perhaps its greatest offence lies in
its direct methods of feeding the plant. These methods are funda-
mentally incorrect. This is undoubtedly one of the basic causes of
the failure of artificial fertilizers, quite apart from their definite
lack of genuine nutritional values.
Nowhere in Nature does direct and intensive feeding take place.
Whereas the feeding of all forms of life is invariably circuitous, the
solutions which are immediately formed by applying artificial
fertilizers are fed in large quantities to the young growing plant.
They have the effect of most noticeably boosting the plant's growth
in its early stages, often leaving it to wilt in the event of a drought
and, definitely, to 'lodge' if the latter part of the growing season is
wet. This kind of experience seldom happens to the plants when
they are humus grown. They are sometimes a little slower in their
early stages of growth, but their root system is much more sub-
stantial, far more extensive, much deeper, and they are thus able
to grow in a dry season with a persistency quite unknown in those
plants which have been assisted by artificial manures. The humus
grown plant finishes up vastly superior both in quantity and
quality to the produce raised by any method of artificial applica-
tion.
This fundamental point is of the greatest possible concern to
every farmer and indeed to every human being. This is not a far-
mer's problem alone, nor even a national problem; itis a grave inter-
national responsibility. It is more than sad to think that not one
of the great scientific institutions devoted to agricultural investiga-
tion in any country in the world has yet begun its first biological
experiment whereby a test, with cattle as its medium, in order to
ascertain the true food values of the crops which are grown under
these two systems, could be carried out.
All independent thinkers are in agreement with the modern soil
131
biologist that such tests are long overdue, and it is my earnest hope,
and one of the basic reasons why I have been induced to write this
book, that these urgent trials may be initiated without further loss
of time.
Note: This was written before the beginning of 'The Haughley
Experiment'. (See Chapter III.)
132
CHAPTER XII
MYCORRHIZAL ASSOCIATION
I
t is my practice, two or three times a year, to visit a certain
estate in the north of England, the property of an old friend.
On each visit it is a matter of ritual for me to spend an hour or
two at least with a very brilliant head gardener who has been in
the family service for severa] years. He tells me that he finds my
experience and knowledge of farming stimulating- as a gardener
he likes to compare notes with me as a farmer, and many an inter-
esting hour have we spent together in the course of the years.
Two or three years ago I had occasion to visit the property, and
I was walking through the gardens where a crop was growing. It
was very healthy, there was an abundance of fruit and everything
about it showed evidence of the master hand. But as we went from
one section to another there was a marked change; the crop was
a fairly thick one and the variety of fruit was the same, but there
was a noticeable difference.
I immediately turned to my gardening friend and said, 'Let us go
back into the other garden.'
After we had returned there, he told me that he had prepared the
soil underneath the fruit himself, with compost and leafmould and
soil from the garden, but that the soil preparation for the fruit in
the section we had just left had been different. 'Oh,' he said, 'that
is Mr. Smith's. Her ladyship has allowed her nephew to have the
use of that and his gardener is looking after it.'
'Well,' I said in reply, 'this is very interesting,' and I pointed out
to him hundreds of fine threads of mycelium which were running
all through this section which he was looking after himself; the
soil underneath was a mass of them and you could trace them to
the extreme surface of it and then back again right into the stem
of the plant. They were most noticeable.
133
I also drew the gardener's attention to the wonderful quality and
luxuriance of the crop generally, and then I took him back to the
second section which was now looked after by the other gardener.
Here there was a coarsely prepared soil around the plant. There
was a certain amount of undecomposed horse manure and I was
told that an artificial fertilizer had been used to assist in the grow-
ing of the crop. There were no threads of mycelium anywhere to
been seen, and the quality of the fruit as well as the weight of it,
was not to be compared with that in the first section, although the
botanical variety in both cases was the same. I then said to the
gardener:
'Now, the part of the garden which you are looking after your-
self is an example of what is known as mycorrhizal association-
in other words the "living bridge" which Nature provides for the
conducting of the sap and solutions of nutriment in the soil
through a tubular or cellular thread to the plant. Some 80 per cent
of all our garden and farm plants are now known to be mycor-
rhiza-formers, and wherever you get organic manure properly
decomposed, and the compost in an advanced humus condition-
in fact, wherever pure humus has been created by careful and skil-
ful preparation-there you have these white threads of mycelium
which are part of this almost mystical mycorrhizal association and
function as a great feeder of the crop. Here you have two crops,
one a real gem both for quality of fruit and for weight, and the
other showing an inferiority which is simply incredible. And now
let us go one step further. Let us take a plate and cut a pound or so
of fruit from each crop. Let us eat it, and see what we think of its
flavour.' This we did, and the flavour of the fruit from the first
section was full and delicious but when we came to eat the fruit
from the second section, we could not distinguish the fruit-no
flavour, unappetizing, not good to look at-and we might as well
have been eating anything.
. The gardener and the farmer refertilizing with compost encour-
age the fungi to produce this mycorrhiza-for a mycorrhiza is a
fungal growth-and if fungal growth is encouraged, it forms a
bridge and a nutriment for the plant, which no artificial fertilizer
can provide. It has been proved conclusively that the application
of artificial fertilizers prevents the growth of the kind of fungi
l34
MYCOR RHIZAL ASSOCIATION
which are mycorrhiza-formers. It has been further proved in many
parts of the world that mycorrhizal association, with its growth of
mycelium threads with which to feed the plant, is an essential part
of vegetable life, and of this I can say much more.
The word mycorrhiza was not used until about the year 1880,
and I would like to acknowledge my indebtedness to Dr. M. C.
Rayner who has made such valuable contributions to our know-
ledge of mycorrhizal association; to her I am indebted for the
following story of the first discovery of mycorrhizas:
' ... The name goes back more than half a century and originated
as follows:
'The gastronomic delicacies known as truffles are the under-
ground fruit-bodies or sporophores of certain fungi native in
woodland soils, found growing among tree roots, especially those
of oak and beech. Truffles are highly prized for their culinary
virtues; their relative scarcity and the difficulties of collection
owing to their subterranean habit have always given them a high
market value. Methods for increasing their numbers artificially
and controlling their distribution in woodlands would be, there-
fore, a matter of considerable economic interest.
'About the year 1882, the German Court of the day, desiring to
promote the cultivation of truffies, requested A. B. Frank, Pro-
fessor of Plant Physiology in Berlin, to investigate and report upon
the natural distribution of truffles, in particular, to examine with
special care the character of their invariable association with the
roots of certain trees. So far as their main purpose was concerned,
Frank's researches led only to negative results; the factors that
determine the distribution and growth of truffles in woodlands
were not discovered and are still unknown. He made botanical
history, however, by his discovery of the fungus-roots of trees.
'Frank observed that a large part of the active root systems of
oak, beech, and other members of the family Cupuliferae, and
likewise of those produced by pines, spruces and many other coni-
ferous trees, were made up of rootlets of very characteristic appear-
ance and structure. These rootlets are short and of relatively large
diameter, sometimes simple and unbranched, more often grouped
in branched systems of definite types. This is notably the case in
dines, in which the branching takes the form of repeated dicho-
135
MYCORRIDZAL ASSOCIATION
tomy, so giving rise to crowded clusters of forked rootlets each
about an eighth of an inch in length. The structure of these short
roots is remarkable, the essential features being as follows. Each
consists of a short lateral rootlet enveloped in a covering of fungal
threads or hyphae interwoven to form a sheath or mantle con-
tinuous over the whole root surface, including the tip. From the
inner side of this investing mantle, hyphae grow inwards between
the cells of the root cortex; viewed microscopically the appearance
in thin transverse sections is that of a continuous network between
the cells, the so-called Hartig net. This fungal net extends to a
variable depth but never invades the central conducting tissue of
the root, nor-save in abnormal cases-do the hyphae composing
it penetrate the cells between which they travel.
'Frank recognized that these novel structures, at that time quite
unknown to botanists, were composite organs, partly root, partly
fungus, and he named them accordingly "Mykorrhizen" (sing.
Mykorrhiza) or fungus-roots, the descriptive name which they
still bear. Those having the structure just described were called by
Frank ectotrophic mycorrhiza to distinguish them from the endo-
trophic mycorrhizas discovered subsequently, in which the my-
celium penetrates the root-cells forming coils or branch systems
within them, but which lack the investing mantle and net. Young
mycorrhiza were variously coloured, whitish, pinkish, yellow or
different shades of brown, the whole mycorrhizal system being
strongly developed in the upper layers of forest and woodland
soils rich in humus, with a covering of organic detritus in progres-
sive stages of decay. They were often observed to be closely associ-
ated with coarse threads of fungal hyphae traversing the debris
and it was evident from the characters of these hyphae and from
those of the mycorrhizas themselves that a number of different soil
fungi were concerned. The mycorrhizas of trees were correctly
,regarded by Frank as specialized organs and were believed by him
to play an important physiological role in the nutrition of the
host trees.
'Frank's enthusiasm for these researches was communicated to
his colleagues and students, the closing decades of the nineteenth
century providing proof of their interest by the publication of
many papers on the subject. It soon became apparent that invasion
136
of the roots of vascular plants by mycelium of soil fungi was a
regular phenomenon, affecting an immense number of species
growing in the most diverse situations and belonging to widely
separated families. It became evident also that the association of
root tissues with mycelium, whatever its physiological implications,
was remarkably constant and uniform in character; especially in
certain groups, and was therefore unlikely to be either casual or
accidental in origin.
'By the beginning of the present century, it had been learned
that forest trees, orchids, and members of the Heath family were
conspicuous among flowering plants in this respect, and it is now
known with certainty that more than 80 per cent of flower.ing
plants as a whole, including a great majority of the crop plants of
both temperate and tropical regions, are mycorrhizal in habit. In
the Heath family, the fungi have been isolated from the roots of a
number of difierent species, grown independently in pure culture
and identified. The same is true of a large number of orchid species,
although the exact affinities of the mycorrhizal fungi of orchids are
still rather uncertain. In both these families of plants the mycor-
rhizas are of the endotrophic type and curious and specialized
relations of the root fungi with seedling development have been
demonstrated. The mycorrhizal associations formed by a majority
of vascular plants, including some trees, for example, ash, poplar,
walnut, cypress and a number of other coniferous species, also
belong to the endotrophic type; the fungi concerned are believed to
be members of a closely inter-related group, widely distributed in
soils all over the world, but their systematic affinities require con-
firmation.
'The ectotrophic mycorrhizas of pines and many other forest
trees, discovered and accurately described for the first time sixty
years ago by Frank, continued to attract the attention of botanists.
Stahl, Professor of Botany at Jena, devoted much attention to the
subject, confirmed and extended earlier observations, and worked
out a new theory of symbiotic nutrition to explain the mutualistic
relations that he, in common with Frank, believed to exist between
the root fungi and their hosts. Frank had indeed gone so far as to
describe the fungi as "foster-mothers" of the trees!
'During the past twenty years, knowledge has accumulated
137
rapidly in respect to the identity of these fungi, their behaviour
when isolated and grown independently, and the reactions shown
by seedlings of the host trees when brought into contact with
mycelium appropriate to the species. The identity of many of them
has been experimentally proved, especially of those forming mycor-
rhizas with pines, Norway spruce, and larch. The mycorrhiza-
formers of these trees and aJso of oak, beech, hornbeam, chestnut,
birch, alder, and hazel are members of a group of soil fungi
familiar to all because their sporophores are the common toad-
stools of woodlands and forests. They belong to the Hymenomy-
cetes, many to the same gill-bearing family as the common mush-
room, and species of the genera Amanita, Lactarius, Russula,
Tricholoma and Boletus have been identified as the root associates
of pine, spruce, larch and other trees. Two peculiarities of these
root associations are worth noting; one, the fact that the mycor-
rhizas are easily recognized by external features and can be identi-
fied without difficulty by naked eye examination; the other, the
multiple habit shown by the hosts, each tree species being able to
form mycorrhizal associations with a number of different fungi.
'It is not proposed to discuss here the problems of plant nutri-
tion involved in the mycorrhizal habit, or even consider in detail
those presented by the symbiotic relations of forest trees with their
root associates. It must be noted that the atmosphere surrounding
researches on this subject has always been clouded by controversy.
In spite of Frank's prestige as a botanist, the views he held on the
significance of mycorrhizas in tree nutrition provoked disagree-
ment, particularly on the part of members of the newly formed
school of plant pathology. To them, the root fungi were pathogens,
invading the tissues parasitically and filching from them supplies
of organic nutrients. How this interpretation can have been seri-
ously maintained in view of the constancy and stability of the
. structural features and the patent fact that mycorrhizal activity
and abundance of mycorrhizas are correlated invariably with
healthy growth and maximum vigour of the host trees, unaccom-
panied by any symptoms of disease, is difficult to understand.
Maintained it was, however, and the controversy thus begun has
never entirely died down.
'To the writer, it appears that plant ecologists have tended to
138
overlook-certainly to underrate-the importance of soil fungi in
general as potential factors in plant ecology. It is reasonable to
regard the mycorrhizal habit in trees as a specialized ecological
relationship, the distribution and activity of the mycorrhiza-
formers being closely bound up with the whole complex of bio-
logical action in soil, especially with those aspects relating to the
breakdown of organic materials and the formation of humus. That
trees belonging to certain groups show a multiple habit suggests
that the capacity to form regular and stable root associations with
different species of soil fungi is in itself an ecological adaptation
bound up directly with other edaphic factors.
'In the establishment of a new ecological unit during afforesta-
tion, sometimes all goes well and the complicated soil factors
become automatically adjusted to form a stable system. Often
there are difficulties, and it has been learned that disturbance of
soil factors is apt to be quickly reflected in mycorrhizal equipment,
the incidence and structural features of the mycorrhizas thus
becoming a valuable index to the suitability or otherwise of soil
conditions, and often a useful guide to the application of correct
methods for their modification... .'
I have now given the reader considerable evidence of a technical
character to show that mycorrhizal association has an important
bearing on all agricultural activities and he may well ask for a plain
statement of the practical lessons which have been learned.
Well, throughout this book I have made numerous references
to the interdependence of the soil, the plant, animal and man. The
health of all four is entirely governed by the health of the soil. If
the soil is toxic, if the soil is out of balance, that is bound to affect
the crop. The crops are certain to be out of balance; they affect
both animal and man; with the result that a standard of poor
health, or symptoms of that condition, are to be found right
through, from the soil to the plant, animal and to man. This can-
not be rectified by ordinary medical practice or by that of the
veterinary surgeon or the chemist, who all merely make good
certain estimated chemical deficiencies. The remedy applied to
these chemical deficiencies is almost invariably some form of
inorganic salts or drugs.
Dr. Rayner has found that the application of phosphates to the
139
Wareham soil did not rectify the toxicity and alleged deficiencies
of that soil. She did find, however, that the application of organi-
cally prepared humus destroyed that toxi.city, encouraged the
formation of mycorrhizas and the development of the fungus that
was necessary to the growth of the trees, and produced healthy
trees. Similarly, if organically prepared humus is applied, it will
be found that the toxicity of the soil will be very quickly remedied
and improved growth will soon begin to show on plants of every
kind which are mycorrhiza-formers, either in garden or farm. I
have several instances in mind and one of them occurred a day or
two ago in my own garden.
When I first came to my present house, I had to deal with the
problem of providing myself with a garden, and after casting about
in various places on this windswept hillside we eventually decided
on one of the worst points; so far as wind was concerned, because
it happened to be geographically convenient to the house. But a
more unsuitable, or a more unfriendly soil, it would be impossible
for man to go and dig. It breaks the heart of the stoutest gardener;
it consists of large flints and a clay soil overlying the chalk.
This soil has now been developed into quite a friendly material
compared with what it was originally, first of all by being ploughed
and subsoiled, and cultivated so that we could dig it by hand, and
finally by being given liberal coatings of compost. Today, the
garden is growing the finest vegetables I have ever seen, and they
are in striking contrast to those grown anywhere else in this
locality. They are the subject of much comment by all the people
who have seen them and the flavour, on which all our visitors
comment, is markedly superior.
Another instance that I have in recollection dates from a visit to
Dr. Picton of Holmes Chapel in Cheshire a few years ago. When
Mrs. Picton took me into her garden where she was picking rasp-
. berries, I was astounded by the size and the superlative flavour of
the fruit. Mrs. Picton told me that the plants had been bought by
her son in a market and were without a name or pedigree of any
kind. 'But the land', she explained, 'was carefully prepared by
double digging, then a layer of compost, made with farmyard
muck, was put underneath, and into that soil and compost these
canes were planted. That is the only explanation. It is compost
140
and thorough aeration of the soil that has produced this luxuriant
food.'
I was immensely impressed with this story, and when I came
home I prepared some land similarly in my own garden, and put in
some of our own raspberry canes, of no special variety, with com-
post treatment. I am now growing fruit of the same quality as I saw
in Cheshire.
Two days ago, when two cowmen chanced to be passing the
garden and looked over our hedge, one remarked to the other:
'Mark, have you ever seen vegetables like that in your life? You
have never any like that in your own garden.' Mark looked over
and said:
'No, I haven't.' Now this man Mark is one of our best local
gardeners.
There was actually a second crop of raspberries in heavy growth
at the time, some of which were ripe and fit to pick: and this was
on November 1st. This crop was gathered- a large bowlful- and
eaten raw- on 5th November 1944, making a dessert more
delicious than anything I remember for many a long day.
To sum up this chapter: the farmer needs to know that 80 per
cent of the agricultural crops that he grows are now known to be
mycorrhiza-formers: This means that all acts in farming must be
conducted to the end that mycorrhizal association can have its full
play. The white threads of mycelium contribute enormously to the
growth of the plant, for apart from the fact that they are the living
bridge through which the plant can draw its nutriment, they in
themselves are a living substance, food for the soil, as well as for
the host plant itself.
Any soil which is not forming mycorrhiza is definitely in bad
condition. This can only be remedied by the application of humus,
artificial fertilizers being definitely lethal to mycorrhizal formation.
141
CHAPTER XIV
LIVESTOCK ON THE FARM
T he activities on our farm can be sharply divided into two

divisions-under the headings cropping and livestock. In
the absence of artificial fertilizers livestock must be kept,
otherwise the fertility would soon be at an end, especially on this
high, thin land.
I have said sufficient in other parts of this book to show the need
for carrying a variety of species of livestock; for mixed farming
must be the order of the day on this farm, as it is in nature, and we
have seen that nature left to herself is the supreme farmer. There-
fore we carry here as great a variety of livestock in peacetime as
the economic management of the farm will permit.
Our livestock can be divided into these groups-thoroughbred
horses; Channel Island cattle for milk production; pedigree Gallo-
way cattle for the production of breeding stock and for beef; half-
bred border Leicester Cheviot sheep and poultry. This is the com-
plete range of livestock.
It is our practice first of all to allow the dairy cattle to have the
cream of the leys-they are the first to go on to a pasture. They are
very selective in their grazing habits, and walk round the field in
search of those grasses, the maturity of which on that particular day
is most suited to their fanciful and fastidious appetite.
If they are to sustain a steady milk-yield cattle cannot be left
. very long in the same field. On a fresh pasture they invariably
increase their output for the first day or two but after four, five,
six or seven days their milk becomes either stationary or more
likely to decline. They begin to call out, by undoubted discontent,
for pastures new.
The field is then visited by sheep, who are the next most selective
members of the livestock population on the farm. They too will
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do a great deal of promenading round the field choosing the grasses
which they like, and they are not the best of grazers in conse-
quence. Their dung and urine, however, have great activating
qualities, and although analytically the chemist may tell us it is
more or less the same as that of any other animal in so far as it
contains a proportion of lime, nitrogen, phosphate· and potash,
the bacterial contents of the sheep's dung are definitely different
from those of the dairy cattle, and seem to have some rectifying,
balancing quality which keeps the organisms left by the milking
cattle in their proper place and SUbjection. Consequently it is im-
portant that one should copy Nature's system by havi~g different
livestock to succeed one another-hence the use of the sheep.
I am going to refer presently to the economics of all these
animals, but for the time being, I will deal solely with their
manurial refertilizing and activating values.
Following the sheep, we have the beef cattle. These are, in my
view, the ideal grazers, for they come along with their big broad
muzzles and sweep every tuft of grass before them. They do not
appear to have the same fastidious discrimination for one plant as
against another, perhaps because their sense of smell is not so
acute or their taste not so highly developed, perhaps because they
have never received, as breeding stock, much-if any-of the
factory-made concentrates, which are-in my opinion-the real
cause of the dairy cows' dietetic fastidiousness. Whatever the true
cause, the fact remains that the Galloway cattle are the finest
mowing machines in the world for sweeping down the whole of
the vegetation on a field. They eat almost everything, and appear to
like weed as well as they do the grasses and the clovers.
They are great servants of the farmer. The Galloway cattle, as a
breed, have other merits in that they thrive on poorer herbage than
any other cattle in the world, even including the Highland cattle
from the mountains in the west of Scotland. There are no cattle
anywhere so hardy, none which will live on such poor fare, nor any
that will give such a return to the farmer for the food with which
they are supplied.
Although they will live on such tack, and do well on it, I doubt
whether there are any cattle which will respond more rapidly to
good feeding. They put on weight amazingly well, they carry a
M 143
minimum of bone, and when they go to the weighbridge for their
final test they surprise everybody by the enormous weight that they
yield, with a killing-out percentage much higher than that of any
other breed. Our Graders say 'they weigh like lead'.
As the salient points of breeding beef cattle are not nearly so
well known to farmers as they ought to be, I feel sure I shall be
forgiven if I set forth the generally accepted characteristics which
the beef animal should possess to give the best returns to both
breeder and feeder, and finally the butcher.
In general the beef animal should be well covered with flesh and
very blocky and compact (these last two points tend to reduce the
proportion of bone present). Good development of the muscles
and fat over the hind end and along the back (producing a broad
back) means a high proportion of valuable cuts, provided the neck
and fore-end and brisket are not over-developed. Meat should
extend well down the legs to reduce the proportion of waste bone.
All bone should be fine wherever it is clearly seen. For example,
head, horns, legs and tail; for coarseness in these parts is taken to
represent coarseness in hidden places. No bones should be at all
prominent, e.g. loin, hooks, pins, shoulders-because the bones
are hidden not by the frame being under-developed but by a good
covering of meat.
I am well acquainted with all our beef breeds of cattle in these
islands. They are the finest in the world, but I know of none which
better conforms to the above standard of excellence than the pedi-
gree Galloways, and this in every detail. Later in this chapter I
will give the Smithfield record to show how favourably they com-
pare with all the other breeds of beef cattle.
It is our practice to breed nothing but pedigree Galloway cattle,
and to sell the females to other breeders for breeding purposes
when they are a year or two years old, and to keep the best of the
. bulls for sale for breeding. The bulls which do not come up to our
standard of excellence are steered and carry through to the finish-
ing of beef about which I shall say more later.
Now we come to the most interesting class of livestock which we
have on the farm-the thoroughbred horses. They too, provide
their own contribution to the refertilizing of the farm. Of this too
I shall have more to say. After these we have the poultry.
144
This branch of our farm is not so highly developed as lone day
hope it may be. It had scarcely been developed at all during the
war because of insufficiency of labour and general war-time diffi-
culties. We make it a general rule to carry an adequate number of
pigs. So far as pigs and poultry are concerned, I believe that every
farm should only carry so many as will consume the second and
third quality corn which is not suitable for milling or first-class
feeding. The real function of both pigs and poultry on the farm
is to act as consumers of waste material. If corn has to be bought
to sustain either pigs or poultry then their role on the farm is
uneconomic.
All this variety of stock works in one with the other, each per-
forming jts part in refertilization, each consuming a class of
vegetation or food which may not be liked by one of the other
species. In this way the whole of the farmer's platter is licked clean
and sound economy effected. Any farmer who is a monoculturalist,
whether of crops or of one selected class of livestock, is not farming
as he ought to farm. Nature nowhere believes in monoculture and
monoculture should not be practised by any farmer.
Let us now consider the respective merits of each class of live-
stock, beginning with the thoroughbred horses. When the average
reader learns that we are thoroughbred horse breeders he will con-
jure up for himself an idea that we are fancy farmers-dilettante
farmers-rich men who have more money to spend than they
know what do do with. I would like to disillusion my readers on
this point.
We breed racehorses for no other reason than that we hope and
expect they will contribute to the general financial stability of the
farm. If they failed to do this, then so far as we are concerned, we
should have to go out of racehorse breeding. If I were to answer
the question, 'Is this a good line to go in for?' by saying simply
yes or no, without a considerable qualification, I should be guilty
of misleading. If a man has a considerable knowledge of the
families which go to make up the stud book of the thoroughbred
horse-breeding industry; if he is a very good judge of a horse; if
he understands the commercial side of marketing those thorough-
breds; and of placing those horses into the hands of the trainers
who can serve him best; if he understands these things and per-
145
haps another score of things, all more or less necessary to the
success of thoroughbred horse breeding; then I say 'Yes, un-
doubtedly horse breeding is a very profitable line.'
In other words, all those qualities which make for success in any
human affairs are needed in measure overflowing to make farming
successful. If a man knows his job thoroughly; if he knows most
of the moves in the game; if he is competent in every detail; if he
is indeed a master man, then his business, whatever it be, will be
profitable. This applies to racehorse breeding as it applies to
everything else. If, therefore, the farmer has the knowledge that
is needed and, in addition, a fair amount of capital, he can embark
upon the breeding of racehorses in the hope and expectation that
he will do well out of it.
Again, here I might be asked, how much would you have to
spend in order to get in a .good mare. And I would here say that
you might be lucky enough to buy a good mare of the highest
class for perhaps as low as 500 guineas. Equally, you might have
to pay 10,000 guineas for that same mare.
There is no scale or yard-stick by which these animals can be
accurately judged. There are certain families in the stud book which
are known to be great breeders of winners, and among these
families is 'the No.1 Family', in what is known as the Bruce Low
Numeral Pedigree Chart. This family, No.1 , is by the far the best
winner breeding family in the stud book.
Mares of this strain are difficult to come by. You might spend
ten or even twenty years in search of a mare from this line of
breeding, and you would only eventually get one by great patience
and probably by paying a very high price.
There is only one way of making thoroughbred horse breeding
a sound economic proposition, and that is to have a knowledge
of the blood line that one wishes to follow, and if it is classic
breeding then it is the No. 1 Family, for this family contains more
classic winners than any other, or even of any group of families
put together.
If a farmer is determined to go into classic stock, then he will
have to buy a No.1 Family mare. That will take some finding and,
when found, the price may be a heavy one.
If a man founds a stud and is fortunate enough to get hold of
146
the right kind of mare which, mated with the right stallion, will
produce one winner after another, he can send his yearlings into
the Newmarket or the Doncaster sales, and expect racing owners
to bid very high prices for them.
Prices as high as 13,000 guineas were paid at the sales at New-
market in 1944. On the other hand, there were some animals sold
very cheap. It sometimes happens, of course, that some of these
low-priced horses will win races. Even so, to buy them is a gamble.
It is better to have the odds in one's favour by buying animals of
good pedigree and outstanding individuality.
The history of racing shows that a high price does not neces-
sarily mean that you have bought a good animal; equally, low
prices are no bar to your buying a winner. It is a most inexact
science- if science it be; you need a great deal of experience, a
vast amount of knowledge and considerable judgement.
Then, after you have bred your animal, you sell it at a sale in
the hope that it will go into the hands of a highly competent
trainer. He, again, hopes that he will have the good fortune to place
it in the right kind of race, and that the horse will be ridden by a
very able jockey. And then perhaps you may- after some years
and all these contingencies-be able to record that you have bred
a winner.
It is a great gamble, but there is a fascination about horse racing
which is many hundreds of years old. In fact, I think that the
origin of horse racing is more deeply embedded in our soil than any
other form of sport. It is probably going back some thousands of
years-this inherent love of the horse and the charm we experience
in seeing horses race. It is something that we, as a nation, will
probably never be without. It has an irresistible attraction and the
more insecure the whole business seems to be, the more it appeals
to a vast multitude of people.
No discourse on racehorse farming could be regarded as com-
prehensive which failed to indicate in figures the financial records
over a long period of the racehorse industry-for a great industry
it is indeed.
147
EXPORTSl
During the past sixteen years English thoroughbreds have been
exported to forty-three countries:
Thoroughbreds
1925- 8 (inclusive) 5,499
1929-32 4,061
1933- 6 3,941
1937-40 3,733
17,234
Total: 4,284,169 Guineas.
YEARLING SALES DECEMBER SALES
1925-39 1925- 39
Average Average
Guineas Guineas each Guineas Guineas each
1925 320,460 983 1925 353,287 464
1926 344,990 1,061 1926 446,776 547
1927 323,810 996 1927 389,206 506
1928 398,130 1,157 1928 478,427 570
1929 499,953 689 ]929 319,220 398
1930 300,965 447 1930 233,254 300
1931 212,359 314 1931 163,528 193
1932 217,959 355 1932 142,793 218
1933 259,984 384 1933 ]64,329 218
1934 409,741 60) 1934 196,543 293
1935 412,694 570 1935 207,276 290
1936 412,346 565 1936 239,964 301
1937 345,603 454 1937 218,369 279
1938 340,280 476 1938 242,279 287
1939 124,866 315 1939 111,599
Total 4,924,340 Total 3,906,850

Total Sales, 1925- 39 inclusive, is:
Yearlings 4,924,340 Guineas
December Sales 3,906,850
"
8,831,190
"
And now for the dairy cattle; I am taking the livestock in the
order of their impoitance, placing the horses first. The dairy cattle
come second. They deserve this because of their financial con-
tribution to the farming revenue.
We had had thirty years' or more experience of dairy work when
1 Bloodstock Breeders' Review.
148
this book was first published. It is the one branch of the farm
which is a veritable treadmill-for seven days a week, and for
fifty-two weeks in the year, and for every year of your life. Any
farmer who ties himself to this task is assuming one of the most
tiring and trying responsibilities which farming can provide.
This being so, it may be surprising that there are more farmers
engaged in the dairy practice than in any other branch of livestock
husbandry. There is only one explanation for this. Most farmers
are inadequately supplied with capital, and they are seeking for
something which will provide a quick turn-round of money. The
dairy farmer enjoys this advantage more than any other type of far-
mer. He gets a monthly cheque, which helps to pay his wages and to
cover some out-goings: without it he would need many thousands
of pounds more capital.
In East Lothian and in Yorkshire, and many other agricultural
counties, the dairy farmer is looked down upon, and is spoken of
not as a farmer, but as a cow-keeper. Men who refer to him like
this know the trying restrictions and responsibilities associated
with the dairy and they will not be bothered with it.
After thirty years' experience, it is the one branch of farming that
I loathe more than anything else. There is more trouble with the
health of the dairy animal than with that of any other livestock. The
restrictions which are rightly imposed for the production of clean
milk are very exacting.
Still, it is profitable if it is well managed. I believe I can throw
a little more light on this subject than most farmers, for the reason
that the average farmer does not keep adequate books to ascertain
the cost of any of his acts of husbandry. At Chute we think we do,
and we do know what a gallon of milk really oosts us.
It is our experience that common milk, even if produced on a
well-managed farm, gives little or no margin of profit. We are
quite satisfied that if all the costs of the depreciation of the cow,
and everything else is taken into consideration, there is no profit
in the production of the-ordinary common-graded milk.
We therefore went in for 'attestation'. We did more than this;
we elected to produce a superior quality of milk altogether, and
that was the reason why we left the Friesian cows many years ago,
and went in for the Channel Island breed. With them we get every
149
benefit both in healthy high quality milk, and high percentage of
butter fats. Claiming premiums on all points, we find ourselves
selling (wholesale) milk at something like 8t d. per gallon more than
is received for the ordinary common grades. We find , furthermore,
that the exact profit we make on running our dairy herd is precisely
what we get by way of premiums.
This would seem to suggest that the ordinary common milk can
do no more than just pay its way, and that if the farmer wishes to
make a profit he can only do so by going for all the premiums avail-
able for producing a better milk. This is as it should be.
In my view the farmer should not be encouraged to produce any
kind of muck in the form of milk, and such milk production ought
to be made diminishingly profitable. This would compel every
farmer to produce a better grade, and as he improved his product
he ought to be correspondingly better paid. On such a system the
milk side of farming could be better remunerated.
In my opinion, although farmers stick to milk production so
tenaciously, milk is marketed throughout the country below the
cost of production; and farmers are only milk producers because of
the necessity of receiving that monthly cheque. That may be the real
reason for cheapness of milk.
It is a state of affairs that ought to be remedied, and without loss
of time. If I were on the council of the Milk Marketing Board, the
one thing that I should demand would be that greater premiums
should be paid for all kinds of 'attested milk'. If that were done,
every farmer would soon see to it that his cattle became 'attested'.
The health of our livestock throughout the country would rise.
Milk production would no longer be, as it now is, the most hated
job on the farm, but would attract better farmers and better farm-
workers, and would soon be better organized throughout.
So much has been written by almost countless pens on the sub-
ject of the quality of milk and the desirability of obtaining a pro-
duct which is safe for human consumption, that I almost hesitate
to add any words of mine. But as the subject affects both the public
and the farmer alike, a few words may not be out of place and I
intend to emphasize briefly certain features which ought to be
brought to notice.
Milk is so peculiarly constituted that it presents an ideal breed-
150
ing and living background for all classes of misclllevous micro-
organisms. It is a food of the highest class, but it is so delicate and
accessible to the action of germs that it needs to be produced under
the best possible conditions. And when I refer to these conditions,
I have in mind not only that the cowsheds and the milking parlours
and the dairies should be scrupulously clean but I am also reflect-
ing more on the health of the animals themselves.
After a very wide professional experience of farm surveying I
am shocked to recall the conditions under which tens of thousands
of cattle are expected to live and the dirt and filth in which they
are sometimes compelled to wallow. I am shocked, too, when I
read that 80 per cent of the cattle which pass through our markets
are diseased, and again, when I read, as I did during the month of
April 1945, of the shocking disclosures made in the House of
Lords by Lord Bledisloe and by several other peers, when he intro-
duced a motion on the subject of disease in dairy cattle. Milk is a
most precious food and yet a great proportion of our dairy cattle
appear to be suffering from very serious diseases.
The public, the farmers themselves, and the Ministry of Agricul-
ture, should combine to create a comprehensive scheme whereby,
as a first consideration, healthy cattle will eventually become the
order of the day. Satisfactory surroundings in which to produce
milk should be the second consideration. Moreover, a well-
balanced price, if necessary subsidized, should be paid to the
farmer in order to justify his taking all the utterly necessary pre-
cautions to produce a food for the public which will not carry
with it the threats of tuberculosis and a host of other complaints
when fed to our children.
I cannot stress this point too strongly-it is of the utmost im-
portance to the farmer himself that he should be made to realize
how his very existence as a dairyman is threatened unless he can
quite speedily produce a food which is beyond criticism. So long
as we have such debates as that to which I have referred, a debate
which was founded upon unassailable facts, the farmer cannot be
happy in the knowledge that this information is going to spread far
and wide among his consuming public.
In Britain the quantity of milk: consumed per head is far below
that which is recorded for America. There, strict regulations are
151
everywhere enforced, and only milk from farms which comply with
them is eligible for public consumption. The British farmer may
think already that he is hampered by regulations, but believe me
they are nothing compared with those in force in America; and the
Americans are right for it is not in the interests of the farmer that
dirty milk should be put on the market at all. Farmers who fail to
comply with a very high standard of hygiene and health in their
cattle should not be allowed to sell their milk to the public. That is
a blatant fact and the sooner it is faced the better it will be for the
dairy industry, as well as for the health of the public.
I have this to say about milk production: if a farmer determines
to be a milk producer he should go in for the better class of cattle,
such as Jerseys or Guernseys. These breeds, in my opinion, are the
world's best dairy cattle. I say, moreover, that high milk yields
should not be the objective, that the cattle should be normally fed,
and not pushed to produce their maximum. So treated, the dairy
cow will have a longer life, and mastitis and other diseases will
quite quickly disappear from our dairy herds.
Mastitis in particular, I maintain, is the product of unduly high
milk yields achieved at the expense of the cow's constitution. This
mistake calls for urgent remedial measures in dairy management.
Another thing which I would like to record, so that it can be
checked by my readers' own observation, is my strong preference
for the Jersey and Guernsey cows. There is a variety of opinions
about this, but no matter what class of stock is in question, whether
it is racehorses or Jerseys or Guernseys, the discriminating buyer
sees to it that he gets hold of the families that are the known best
performers. If this is done with Jerseys and Guernseys, these
breeds are, in my opinion, the most economical in the world. The
best families give an amazing quantity of milk, and of a richness
in butterfat which cannot be equalled by other breeds. So far as
our own farm is concerned we have never had a reactor to the
Tuberculin Test among the Jerseys. This is surely a gold medal
for that breed as against all others.
The next class of cattle which engages my attention, and my
admiration, are the pedigree Galloway Beef Stock. This animal is
one which I like very much indeed. It claims my admiration first
of all because it will, literally, live on the poorest vegetation to be
152
found. The natural habitat of this noble beast is the region covered
by the south-western counties of Scotland, extending from the
Clyde to the Solway Firth and including the counties of Kircud-
bright, Wigton, Dumfries, Ayrshire, Renfrew and Lanark, to~
gether with a number of the border counties and the four northern
counties of England-that is the home of the Galloways and is
their real home. In these highlands, in those wild valleys and glens
of the Carrick country, you find these long-haired fellows some~
times a bright long-haired black, at other times a lovely dun; there
you find him, knee deep in water, living on lichen and grasses of
low-feeding value, or, as some of their admirers say, living on
scenery and fresh air; thriving, rearing their calves, living to ripe
old age, eventually themselves turning up at the butcher's block,
and comparing well with all the other breeds in winning the
championships at Smithfield and the Edinburgh fat stock shows.
This grand animal, almost a scavenger on the farm, lives on the
roughest vegetation the Almighty has sent to sustain him. He is the
animal of my choice when we come to the beef breeds, for I have
found that he not only lives in my wild windswept downs over
800 feet above sea-level, without any protection at all; there he
lives and he thrives. But I have also found that when I have some
good food, he responds to this with alacrity and puts on flesh at a
rate which is really dramatic. He feeds to considerable weights
and the quality in the meat is without equal. At three years old he is
of the same standard as the finest of all our breeds. In fact, there is
nothing more illuminating than the last returns in 1938 of the
Smithfield Club's Stock Record-these are as follows. This table
shows that steers between twenty-four and thirty-six months old
run in the following order:
cwt. qtr. lb.
Sussex 14 2 11
Devon 14 1 14
Galloways 14 0 23
Aberdeen Angus ]4 0 6
Hereford 13 0 17
1st Cross 13 1 7
Shorthorn 12 2 2S
Highland 12 3 20
Here it will be seen that the Galloway cattle are clearly among
153
the highest in the list, actually beating the Aberdeen Angus, the
Hereford, the Highland, the Shorthorn and the First Cross.
This result tells the world more clearly than any argument
which are the best beef cattle, and there is no animal which com-
pares with the Galloway for economic beef production combined
with quality of meat. This steer stands at the head of the list, and
he appeals to me, particularly for the farm which we occupy,
because of his ability to withstand wintry conditions better than
any other animal in the world. The very best of the heifers and
bulls which we breed we sell to other breeders-those that are of
superb quality; and all that are even slightly below that grade we
turn into steers and feed to the fatness demanded by the butcher's
block.
They give the utmost satisfaction. They are free from disease,
according to our experience, tuberculosis is practically unknown
amongst them, and they are hardy to a degree.
The men love them. I have yet to find a stockman who had an
unkind word to say about the Galloways. There are those, of
course, who believe that the Galloway Shorthorn cross, which
produces the famous blue-grey, is an even quicker growing animal
than the pure-bred Galloway, but this is not our experience.
We think that the pure-bred Galloway is just as quick growing
as his first cross, although the latter is indeed a noble beast and
much liked by the butcher. The pure-bred Galloway produces less
bone, kills out to better meat percentage, and is just as heavy in
total weight at three years as the best of the other breeds, or even
heavier, according to Smithfield returns, than the first cross blue-
grey.
I regard the blue-grey, however, as one of the finest cattle, and
so do all the butchers. I believe that he holds a premier place in the
estimation of most butchers. Those, however, who are acquainted
~th the pure Galloway like him equally, if not better.
Another very important characteristic of Galloway cattle,
possessed to a degree without comparison with any other breed,
is their ability to stand feeding in the open stockyard. When all
farm buildings are so derelict and out of date as they now are on
every farm, the make-shift stockyard is a matter of necessity. This
means that, at best, one can do no better than erect a stockyard
154
WATE R
TANH . •
tN.
~O"
WATeR
TANH
155
in some reasonably sheltered place on the farm, where there is
water, and where, with four strands of barbed-wire and posts, an
enclosure can be cheaply and quickly created. The Galloway with
his rich, double, thick coat will stand outside eating his food in
apparent comfort, will build up weight, and genuinely thrive all the
better in these outdoor conditions than in a stuffy, smelly, unhealthy,
covered yard. Our animals live outside all their lives. Calving takes
place in December. The calves live with their dams, and never know
indoor conditions until they reach the butcher's block.
As a sheep farmer the Scotsman leads the world. In particular
the Scottish border farmer is perhaps the world's best sheep farmer,
and I recommend my pupils, when they leave this farm, to go to a
Scottish sheep farm for a period of at least eighteen months, so as
to learn the secret technique of the way the Scotsman produces his
sheep and, so I believe, produces them at a profit.
Sheep farming, so far as we are concerned here in the south of
England, is generally admitted to be not a very profitable line.
Some carry sheep, many do not. At one time you could not go
over the Hampshire and Wiltshire Downs without seeing a flock
of sheep on every farm-today you can take a journey of a con-
siderable distance and perhaps not see a single sheep. This is un-
fortunate, because the value of the sheep to this particular class of
land is undoubted; but the fact nevertheless remains, as almost
every farmer has to record, that they are kept at a serious loss.
But the Scotsman seems to make a profit-I am afraid I cannot
explain how this is so, but, as I say, my pupils probably will be
able to find that out for themselves if they spend two years with the
border farmer.
In the Border Leicester Cheviot first cross or half-bred-as he
has now become to be called-the border farmer has produced an
animal which I think is probably the finest sheep in the world. This
~heep is one of the finest breeding ewes I have ever seen. We like
to cover them with the Hampshire Down or Suffolk ram. Although
we have no flock of sheep at the moment at Chantry, we have had
them, and when possible I hope we shall have another flock of
half-breds to take its part in maintaining the fertility of this high
land. They will be chosen from the border country, and I hope
that I may be able to find a border shepherd who will come and
156
look after them. The sheep should have a place on land such as we
occupy, and I hope that the National Farmers' Union and the
Government of the day will so organize sheep products that sheep
can be kept at a profit; although at the present moment the dice
are rather heavily loaded against the sheep farmer.
The next items with which we have to deal on this farm are
poultry and pigs. Pig population, as well as the poultry, is down
to a minimum. For this there are two reasons: one, because we
have not much waste food; two, because we have a hopeless in-
sufficiency of labour. When labour is in control of the situation as
unfortunately it is now, we have to cut our coat according to the
cloth. But the pig and the hen are very important in the refertiliza-
tion of a farm; their dung and their urine have a great value. They
have a corrective influence upon all the other classes of dung, and
I favour the pig and the hen because of that value.
I do not advocate, however, highly specialized poultry farms, or
highly specialized pig farms. Of all the mistakes that can be made
in agriculture, I think these two are the greatest blunders, and I
have seen so many failures of them in the last thirty years that I
would like to record here how much I disagree with the view that
this class of farming can be made a success through specialization.
In the days before the war, the pig and poultry farmer had some-
thing of a harvest, while the wheat grower was at a great disadvan-
tage. World prices were low, and because of that, poultry food
was cheap, and so was pig food. If world grain prices are stabil-
ized, the only wheat that will be available to feed pigs on will be
the seconds and thirds from the threshing. This means that every
farmer should carry a minimum of livestock of this kind, only
sufficient to use up the waste grain that he receives from his
threshings. In this way he will produce eggs, poultry and pig meat
on an economic basis, they will make their contribution towards
refertilizing the land. This is the way, I think, that both pigs and
poultry should be dovetailed into the general farming programme.
I do not care what figures may be provided by people to justify
the mono culture of the one class of livestock or the other. Live-
stock should only be kept in so far as they fit into the complete
scheme of the farm.
157
CHAPTER XV
THE VALUE OF GRAZING; THE RE-

LATIONSHIP OF CLOVERS TO GRASSES;
THE ABILITY OF CLOVERS TO FEED THE
GRASSES WITH NITROGEN; THE INTER-
DEPENDENCE OF MANY SPECIES OF
STOCK
ompost making is an inevitable process on a farm which
C produces, as we do, some fifty ricks of straw in the year, be-

sides all the vegetable waste of every kind from the ditches,
the hedgerows, roadsides, woodlands and various other places, all
of which should be turned into compost. Compost is invaluable
whether it is shallow-ploughed or disked into the arable land, or
used as a surface dressing for the oncoming grasses and clovers.
The mechanization of compost making is the way by which it
can be economically performed under modem conditions, when
wages are such a serious item in the cost of running a farm.
At the same time there are other methods of building humus
into the soil, and these methods need to be studied with a view to
finding maximum economy in farm management. There is no
method of manufacturing humus better than the four years' ley,
and grazing that ley with a mixture of livestock in a highly scientific
way. I propose very briefly here to set out a few practices so that
farmers, who may not yet be familiar with the management of leys,
ca~ see how this is done on this highland farm.
The value of, and the scientific reasons for the periodical grazing
of pastures containing large mixtures of clover (particularly wild
white clover and American sweet clover), are the subject of dis-
cussion and writings by many authorities.
I am speaking purely and simply from my own experience as a
farmer. One of the important functions of clovers generally,
158
21. Yearling co lt by Tencrani ex Eugenie of C han try named Tencuji (a winncr)
22. Yearling colt by Moss borough ex Eugenie of Chantry- named Mosstrooper

o f Chantry
23. R ansome's Combine: shows the reall y extensive ca pabilities o f this immense
machine. Weighing 4t
tons it is ca pa ble of harvesting 7 tons pCI' ho ur o f gra in in
'good-go ing'
24. Ransome's Combine: Unloading into trailer travelling alongside while combine
is travelling and threshing. This machine in the year 1958 represents the highest
achievement in combine manufacture
THE VALUE OF GRAZING
especially the wild white, is to form a dense sward, so that in the
summer soil temperatures can be reduced and the humus can be
preserved, it being a well-known fact that humus is most readily
dissipated during the intense heat of the summer months. Uni-
formity of growth is always influenced more by temperature than
by rainfall. Then, closely associated with the grazing 'management
is the problem of the way in which nitrogen is collected by the
bacteria in the nodules of all the clover plants.
One needs to know, at least in an elementary way, how that
nitrogen, collected by the clover plant, is liberated for the benefit
of the grasses with which the clover is growing. As long as clover
growth continues to be unchecked, there is little or no nitrogen
liberated into the soil, either for the benefit of the soil, or for the
advantage of the competing grasses. Nitrogen collected by the
bacteria in the root nodules is used at the outset by the clover
plant almost entirely to promote its own growth. The more nitro-
gen that is available to the plant, the greater the leaf surface in the
clover; and the greater the leaf surface exposed to the light, the
more carbohydrates pass to the bacteria in the root nodules, and
of course this is their living food. The more the carbohydrates pass
to the bacteria, naturally, the greater is the amount of nitrogen
collected by those bacteria. When, however, grazing animals begin
to take part in the proceedings, and cut short the plant's life,
somewhere near the crown of the plant, there is a suspension of
Nature's processes for the time being, and something very serious
happens to the clover plant as a whole; in other words, it receives
a rude physical shock. When this happens to the plant the supply
of carbohydrate to the living bacteria is cut off for the time being,
the nodules suffer a great change, and actually change in colour.
Many of them drop off their root stems, and are accommodated
in the soil, and a large amount of nitrogen which they contain is
then, for the first time, liberated into the soil, and becomes avail-
able for the benefit of the competing grasses.
From this it will be seen that close grazing affects the amount of
nitrogen the grasses can obtain, and it also shows to the farmer
the importance of grazing a mixed sward of grasses and clovers,
so that the sward can be enormously developed and the fertility
of the land be greatly increased, not merely by the dung and the
N 159
urine of the cattle, but by the taking of nitrogen from the air and
by making it available to the soil and, through the soil, to the
competing grasses.
Furthermore, if a sward is adequately controlled, grazed effi-
ciently, and quite heavily grazed, but not over-grazed, the clover
plants can be allowed proper time to recover and begin building
up their system of nitrogen forming afresh; but if, on the other
hand, they are hit much too hard, they may become weak and the
full benefit of their presence in the sward is lost.
Another interesting point which must be of concern to farmers
is the amount of nitrogen that a clover plant will put into the soil.
The actual quantity is bound to vary enormously according to the
conditions that may be prevailing, but it is claimed that, under
favourable conditions, a cow will consume something like 150 lb.
of the green herbage of wild white clover in the course of some
eight or ten hours' grazing; and that with her assistance an acre
of good wild white clover is capable of collecting from the air
and fixing an amount of nitrogen equivalent to about half a ton of
sulphate of ammonia dressing.
It is even claimed that American sweet clover, which is regarded
as the greatest of all leguminous nitrogen formers, actually con-
tributes a greater tonnage of nitrogen to the soil than the wild
white. In any event, it is simple for every farmer to understand
that--'provided he knows how to control and will take a great
interest in controlling his grazing-he can get from the air in an
organic form, a greater quantity of nitrogen than he ever dared
apply in the form of SUlphate of ammonia, an inorganic salt which
kills his earthworms wholesale.
The proper understanding of the part that clovers play in our
leys cannot be too closely studied by every modern farmer. He
must try to learn that only when the clover is grazed and nipped
down nearly to the crown, does it become the great servant to the
soil that it should be. This is elementary, but it is important.
The next thing is to be sure of providing a greatly varied assort-
ment of animals to succeed one another and to promote, through
dung and urine, the activation which is effected by various kinds
of bacteria. The desired result is sheet-composting, or humus
formation in its most economic and efficient form.
160 .
MELILOTUS ALBA
Sometimes known as Bokhara Clover, at others as Ruban
Clover, but much more generally known as American Sweet
Clover and widely spoken of by beekeepers as Roney Clover, this
important member of the Leguminous Family deserves an exclu-
sive niche in the hall of fame.
Although almost unknown to English farmers, this Melilot is
the oldest individual in the clover tribes. Its history is shrouded
in the far distant records of the past, for it was well known to the
Chinese farmers of four thousand years ago.
In China it was grown extensively and its great virtues gradually
extended its sphere to the adjoining Mongolia. Travelling west-
wards skirting the great Himalayan Divide, its progress and
reputation continued through Persia, Arabia, to the shores of the
Levant, along the coast of the northern Meruterranean, eventually
finding use among the farmers of Italy through several centuries.
Somewhere about the year 1750, a quantity of sweet clover seed
was exported to America, and in a comparatively short space of
time its wide use, still travelling westwards, continued to the
Pacific coast. Today its range covers regions as far north as the
Arctic and as far south as the States of Central America. In fact so
adaptable is it to every clime it would appear that its potential
range is almost boundless.
In the United States it flourished with such freedom that it got
out of control. It would spring up in the middle of a road which
might be but little used, and break up the road surface with its
deep-rooting power. It would appear as from nowhere on aban-
doned pit-hills and public dumps. It invaded private gardens, and
was such a ubiquitous feature of the countryside that it was
regarded as Noxious Weed Number One, and became so univer-
sally hated that two-thirds of the Governments of the States in
the Federal Union passed laws for its effective extermination.
Road-men were vested with special powers of trespass over private
property to destroy it wherever they saw it growing.
Then, one day, someone decided to test this plant for the feeding
of stock. It was found, so long as it is eaten young, that is, before
161
it is eight or nine inches tall, all stock liked it, including horses,
although they do not take to it as well as other livestock unless it is
in a mixture with other grasses. If it is mixed they will eat it readily.
Pigs seemed to graze it greedily and do well on it. Sheep too thrive
on it, and cows like it as fresh fodder, as ensilage, and as hay.
Well, well, well, here was a noxious weed turned into a primary
fodder crop, and it was, in the course of time, sought by everybody.
At one time Alfalfa (our Lucerne) was America's and Canada's
principal fodder crop. Today sweet clover holds that position.
It has, moreover, many advantages that lucerne does not possess.
It is much more easy to establish. It is well known to most English
growers that lucerne cannot usually be successfully grown without
inoculating the seed with the necessary bacteria. Lucerne has not
attained popularity among English farmers because of this diffi-
culty. Sweet clover, however, establishes itself anywhere, and once
it has been grown on land, lucerne will grow as a crop on that land
following sweet clover. There would appear to be some bacterial
affinity between these two legumes where sweet clover, with its
robust constitution, prepares the land with all those living organ-
isms without which lucerne cannot successfully be established.
Like lucerne it is one of Nature's subsoilers, but out-herods
Herod by being far more vigorous than lucerne can ever hope to
be.
lt is a biennial, and in its second year of growth goes down into
the bowels of the earth to an incredible depth, with thick vigorous
roots. These break up the subsoiling pan and grow thereon nitro-
gen-forming nodules. The roots decompose after two years. The
resulting humus enriches the soil and becomes a moisture reservoir
in so doing. The figures of atmospheric nitrogen accumulation in
the soil which eminent American authorities attribute to the grow-
ing of a single crop of sweet clover are so fantastically extravagant
. that I hesitate to quote any of them. But I do not imply any doubt
about the scientific findings of our botanical friends on the other
side. Far from it. From my own observations I can state that there
is no legume grown in England-not even our highly valued
Kentish Wild White and Aberystwyth S.100-that can compare
with American Sweet Clover in the nitrogen fertility that is left
behind. It ought to find a place in the farming scheme of every
162
agriculturist in Britain to his permanent good in the improved
fertility and general usefulness of his soil.
Throughout America I have seen this legume growing every-
where, and over there farmers are universal in their praise for it
as a fodder crop and as a fertilizing medium.
The methods by which I recommend its application to my
theories of humus farming might here be recorded.
It is used as an ingredient in my big mixtures, usually in amounts
of not more than four or five pounds to the acre. This quan-
tity shows itself quickly, for it grows more rapidly than any-
thing else in the sward, either grasses or clovers. In its early stages
of growth its reputation for sweetness is well maintained. It is
most palatable, for the stock eat it readily. It is punished fairly
severely in its first year of growth, and although its presence is in
evidence it never attains the vigour of development that is seen
when it is more kindly treated in its first year of life. By dying out
in its second year, it gives place to those more slowly growing
species, thus performing the valuable function of providing quick
fodder in the early stages of the new sward.
Tea and Rubber Growers in Ceylon and the Malay States

It is common knowledge that many cultivated areas in the
tropics have lost much of their original fertility through their
having borne a single crop, such as rubber or tea, over a long
period of years and through mistaken agricultural practices in the
past, when the chemist's prescriptions were regarded as infallible.
Sweet clover could be used to renew the fertility of those much-
abused properties. And by following this technique.
Grow sweet clover between the trees, cut the crops lightly the
first year, allowing the vegetation to rot where it falls. Cut the crop
still more heavily the second year, never letting it be more than
twelve inches tall, again allowing the cut to rot where it falls.
That, however, is not all. It has been established at many scienti-
fic stations throughout the world that if a green crop is grown on
land that may be deficient in anyone of the seven ingredients of
plant structure or general health and make-up, and that crop is
ploughed back into the soil on which it is grown, there is a tendency
163
for the deficiency to be accentuated to the detriment of subsequent
crops.
When, however, the crop is passed through the innards of live~
stock, a biological change of the greatest importance takes place,
for the animals' dung and urine, which act as biological activators
to all the living organisms of the soil, causing them to breed and
increase their activities for the preparation and conditioning of
plant food, the results are entirely different: deficiencies are re~
duced or eliminated, greater fertility occurs, humus is formed from
an animal origin outside the soil, and a true balance in the earth,
both chemical and biological, is obtained.
The tea planter, and his friend the rubber planter, must keep
livestock in a stockyard, and must spread ten tons to the acre of
Indore prepared compost, after the first cut of sweet clover. This
is the only activator of an animal origin that is required. It will
breed untold millions of the necessary fungi, aerobic and anaerobic
bacteria, and all these, acting upon that grand crop of sweet clover
accumulating on the surface of the soil, will make the humus that
this much abused soil is in need of, will make good all deficiencies,
and produce healthier trees and greater crops of better quality.
We must not overlook the part that various animals play in

supporting one another's health and in the economical consump-
tion of foods, one species eating what another will leave behind.
At Chantry we have noticed the readiness with which our Gallo-
way cattle will eat the straw which comes from the boxes of our
thoroughbred mares. For some time I was mystified as to why,
when there was good hay available, the cattle would often go and
eat dry urine-salt-saturated straw. Eventually, however, I saw an
article on the feeding materials obtainable from the air in the
Farmer and Stock-Breeder by Mr. J. A. B. Smith of the Hannah
Dairy Research Institute; he refers to urea which can be derived
from the atmosphere, and which has not so far been used as feed-
ing stuff in this country. Experiments have shown that under
certain conditions it can function for ruminants as effectively as
oil cakes, but Mr. Smith emphasizes that under existing conditions
in Britain the addition of urea to rations will probably be of little
value except where carbohydrates are present in excess.
164
Mr. Smith, with whom 1 had some correspondence, was able
to account for the fact that straw from the thoroughbred boxes is
preferred to hay by my Galloway cattle. 'I should think', he wrote
in reply to my inquiry, 'that the explanation almost certainly lies
in the fact that the straw as it comes from the boxes is impregnated
with urea and with many other substances which . are probably
present in roughly the right amounts to render the straw much
more readily available to the masses of bacteria in the rumen. The
straw is therefore probably more appetizing and more readily
digested.'
This is an interesting subject and will only further emphasize the
part that Nature intended all animals to play, one with another,
to keep the soil and vegetation in good and healthy balance, so
that all can live, and the soil and the plants can remain in robust
health.
To illustrate the interdependence of one species of animal upon
another in the wild, I tell the story of the Canadian northern bear,
for which 1 am indebted to Mr. Thomson of the Kingston Clinic,
Edinburgh.
' ... a Canadian hunter, while undergoing a fast, had told me
about hibernating bears. According to the folklore of the hunter
these bears are highly intelligent animals, able to build hide-outs
which even an acute observer (if he is not an experienced hunter)
cannot detect although he may be standing on top of one. These
bears, during the summer, live principally upon fish and grass, but
in the late autumn the bear suddenly changes all his feeding habits
and for some time he stuffs himself with hay, twigs and pine
needles, along with moose and caribou droppings.
'By this time his flesh, which was repugnant when he went to
sleep, has become sweet and is considered to be the greatest
delicacy of the north.
'Mr. Lynch was able to get two of his friends, who were Cana-
dian Government biologists, interested enough to make investiga-
tions for him.
'All hibernating bears are partly vegetarian and graze freely
among caribou and moose. As the suckling stage comes to an end,
the cubs are weaned on grass. This grazing is never completely
dropped, although, in adult life, the major part of their food is fish
165
-salmon preferred. When these become scarce they eat pine
cones, needles and twigs, along with droppings, as reported. At
this stage they are still very fat and when they retire within their
den the bowel is packed with vegetable matter. When an animal
just settled for the winter was shot and the bowel opened the
stench was described as "overpowering"; the flesh "nauseating,
fishy and unfit for food". By the spring the bear's flesh has under-
gone a complete and remarkable change. It has become "the most
sought after of all northern foods". Very little residue is found in
the alimentary tract. But most amazing of all: "The bowel was
odourless and quite sterile. No cultures of any of the usual in-
testinal flora or bacilli could be obtained.'"
It will be seen from this interesting story of wild life how very
inter-dependent we all are, one upon another.
The earthworm is the greatest servant of all; and then we have
the bacteria, the micro-organisms and the fungi in the soil. As a
result of the combined activities of all these living forces humus is
formed and accumulates. Humus, in its turn, produces the susten-
ance of healthy living food for the denizens of the soil, and these in
turn provide the food for plants upon which both man and beast
can live.
All these processes of living existence are necessary for every
one of us. This is the discipline of Nature. Nature has been
described as a vast spontaneous universe moving in its own right
according to its own order. In the spontaneous world of Nature
order is manifest.
All the disease and disorder on our farms are the result of man's
interference, because his acts of husbandry have been undertaken
without regard to Nature's laws and examples. We need new
thoughts. In other words, we shall achieve nothing until we have
a new way of thinking.
. A new knowledge of our universe is in the process of germina-
tion. The world will soon learn that the soil, the plant and animal,
are woven together in a vast balanced cycle. Ignorance of this
living balance leads man to abuse and destroy it.
A full understanding of all these important interdependent
happenings will make the wise farmer determine that he will do
nothing in his farming which interferes with this regular cycle of
166
Nature. Ifhe does so, he knows the chastisement which awaits him,
for Nature demands her toll when she is grievously outraged.
Note by Sir Albert Howard

'The preference of Galloways for horse urine impregnated
straw, reminds me of a common practice in the Orient- the dung
of horses is used to feed the buffalo (the milch cow of the East).
'What a lot our nutrition experts have to learn and unlearn I
'How important it is always to ask the animal, and of course
the plant.'
167
CHAPTER XVI
MAN AND BEAST-PARASITES ALIKE
ir Albert Howard said: 'The prime agency in carrying on life
S on this planet is sunlight, because it is the source of energy,

and the instrument for intercepting this energy and turning
it to account is the green leaf. This wonderful little example of
Nature's invention is a battery of intricate mechanisms. Each cell
in the interior of the green leaf contains minute specks of a sub-
stance called chlorophyll and it is this substance which enables
the plant to grow. Growth implies a continuous supply of nourish-
ment. Plants do not merely collect their food, they have to manu-
facture it before they can feed. In this they differ from animals and
man, who search for what they can pass through their stomachs
and alimentary systems, but cannot do more: if they are unable
to find what is suitable to their natures and ready for them, they
perish. A plant is, in a way, a more wonderful instrument. It is an
actual food factory, making what it requires before actually begin-
ning the processes of eating and digestion. The chlorophyll in the
green leaf, with its capacity for intercepting the energy of the sun,
is the power unit that, so to say, runs the machine. The green leaf
enables the plant to draw simple raw materials from diverse
sources and to work them into complex combinations.
'Thus from the air it absorbs carbon-dioxide, which is combined
with more oxygen from the atmosphere and with other substances,
poth living and inert, drawn from the soil and from the water
which permeates the soil. All these raw materials are then assimi-
lated into the plant and made into food. They become organic
compounds, i.e. compounds of carbon, classified conveniently into
groups known as proteins, carbo-hydrates and fats: together with
an enormous volume of water (often over 90 per cent of the whole
plant) and interspersed with small quantities of chemical salts
168
MAN AND BEAST-PARASITES ALIKE
which have not yet been converted into the organic phase, they
make up the whole structure of the plant-root, stem, leaf, flower
and seed. This structure includes a big food reserve. The life prin-
ciple, the nature of which evades us and in all probability always
will, resides in the proteins looked at in the mass. These proteins
carryon their work in a cellulose framework made up of cells
protected by an outer integument and supported by a set of
structures known as the vascular bundles, which also conduct the
sap from the roots to the leaves and distribute the food manu-
factured there to the various centres of growth. The whole of the
plant structures are kept turgid by means of water.
'The green leaf, with its chlorophyll battery, is therefore a per-
fectly adapted agency for continuing life. It is, plainly speaking,
the only agency that can do this, and is unique. Because animals,
including man, feed eventually on green vegetation, either directly
or through the bodies of other animals, it is our final source of
nutriment. There is no alternative supply. Without sunlight and the
capacity of the earth's green carpet to intercept its energy for us,
our industries, our trade, and our possessions would soon be use-
less. It follows, therefore, that everything on this planet must
depend upon the way mankind makes use of this green carpet.'
I have read, and reread these almost sacred words time and time
again, and I never cease to wonder at the manifestations of this
description Sir Albert Howard gives of the functions of the Green
Plant, and the part it plays in literally holding the living universe
together.
When we realize, as every serious-minded individual must, how
greatly dependent we are upon this slender thread, does it not
make even the most careless pause to think that of all structures
the Green Plant is almost sacred? When we realize, furthermore,
that the Green Plant is dependent upon the health and well-being
of the soil, is it not even more a grave responsibility which rests
upon the shoulders of man that nothing in his acts of Husbandry
should ever be done which is calculated to deprive the Good Earth
of its full ability to provide for the Green Plant every real nutri-
ment of which it is capable? Both man and beast are parasitic on
the Green Plant. We are dependent upon the fruitful interaction
of the sun and soil, and we are bound up in an inescapable sym-
169
MAN AND BEAST- PARASITES ALIKE
biosis that comprehends the humblest of soil bacteria and the
proudest of living mammals. The Green Plant is part of a complex
set-up, but of all is perhaps the most important.
170
PART II
CHAPTER X VII
REACTIONS-MEDICAL OPINION
I
he Medical Press and Circular (founded in the year 1839)
reproduced an article of mine, 'Will there be a second Black
Death ?', which originally appeared in the Veterinary Journal
of an earlier date. This prompted the editors to write a leader,
which I am going to reprint here, under the heading, 'The Good
Earth'.
'To-day, for the first time in our history (and we believe, for the
first time in the history of any medical journal), we publish an
article by a farmer on what might appear to be a purely farming
problem. But it is, in fact, a problem that raises the most funda-
mental issues with which we deal. We make no apology for this
departure: on the contrary we can only express surprise that we
should still have to regard it as an innovation. For if there is one
goal on which the eyes of our profession are set to-day, it is health,
and the first and indispensable condition of health is that it must
be based on adequate nutrition. In common with all other forms
of life on land, we depend for our existence on the fruitful inter-
action of sun and soil, and we are bound up in an inescapable
symbiosis that comprehends the humblest of soil bacteria and the
proudest of living mammals. The farmer's work is, in fact, an
essential prerequisite of our own.
'Soil health, with which our contributor deals, is apt to be taken
for granted by the uninstructed. In truth, this assumption is one
of the most dangerous that we could make, as history so painfully
records. Consider the dustbowls of modern America that have
developed with such appalling rapidity within the last few decades.
And lastly, let us consider what has been happening in our own
country in recent years.
'But first to examine an apparent paradox. It is beyond question
171
true that the public health has enormously improved during the
past hundred years. Sanitation and epidemiology have made
tremendous strides. The advance in surgery since the discovery of
general anaesthesia, and of both medicine and surgery since the
epochal discoveries of Pasteur, has been phenomenal. Many of the
captains of the forces of death have been subdued or vanquished.
We have our asepsis, our vaccines, our sera, our X-rays and insulin,
our penicillin and sulphonamides, all of them great and literally
vital advances. We have stamped out or brought under control
many sources of danger, and we have prolonged human life by a
decade or more.
'But is that the full story? As Lord Teviot pointed out recently,
in a most revealing debate in the House of Lords, side by side with
all this achievement has marched an increasing array of minor,
though often crippling, disorders, amounting in the aggregate to
an enormous total. Millions of money represented by the work of
hundreds of thousands of doctors, nurses, technicians and chemists
are constantly engaged in grappling with this problem. Hundreds
of thousands of hospital beds have to be provided and maintained
-indeed, if we include the employees of drug manufacturers, the
personnel of the retail chemists' shops, the health workers and
visitors, and other public health employees, the clerical staff of
hospitals, the porters and wardmaids, the ambulance drivers, and
so on, we must compute an army, engaged in this conflict, many
times the size of that mobilized to repel the Spanish Armada!
. 'How is all this to be changed, if it can be changed at all? This is
no easy question to answer, but we may say, in general, that there
are two main lines of attack-by pressing forward with preventive
medicine, and by pursuing the quest of "positive health". And, of
all the factors that go to constitute the latter, diet, as we have
stressed already, is the dominant one; perhaps, too, it may playa
. larger role in the former than we now suspect. Diet, that is, mean-
ing not only the type and quantity of the food we eat, but its
essential quality-a question that our investigators take, far too
often, for granted.
'About one hundred years ago the great German chemist, Liebig,
laid the foundations of a process that has since had an immense
effect on the agricultural practice of Europe and America. This was
172
the stimulation of plant growth by the application of chemicals
to the soil. This method spread more and more widely until to-day
it may be said to be universal in the West. This chemical treatment
of our soil seemed at first to do nothing but good, particularly
when only used in an auxiliary role. Yields were greatly increased
as the technique of application was improved. But in later years,
since it has become more and more the method of choice, other
factors have thrust themselves on the notice of our agriculturalists.
Disease, both of plants and animals, has greatly increased, and
more and more pressure has had to be applied to the soil to main-
tain its yield. Recently, diseases of stock have assumed alarming
proportions, and the very existence of our dairy herds seems to be
threatened by one of them, contagious abortion, alone.
'The conviction that something is very wrong has grown more
and more irresistible, and recent years have seen new researchers
taking the field, of whom Sir Albert Howard is the chief apostle
and protagonist. He believes that nature's cycle must be restored
if the soil, and the animals that derive from it, are to regain health.
That cycle may be epitomized by saying that all that comes from
the soil must go back to it-vegetable waste and animal excretion
alike. By special treatment (composting) of these wastes humus is
made. Unlike many chemicals, humus does not depress, but stimu-
lates the biological flora of the soil, and especially those fungi-
the mycorrhiza-that seem to bridge the gap between soil and
rootlet, and whose presence in increasing numbers gives a mount-
ing index of health. Humus, too, it is believed, holds much of the
moisture of the soil, preventing alike soil dropsy or dehydration.
By means of composted humus, Howard and his co-workers not
only claim to restore vigour to the soil, but produce plants of
vastly improved quality and flavour that are, moreover, resistant
to disease.
'From our point of view this last is a crucial point. If Howard's
claim be well founded-and there is much evidence that it is-then
by the restoration of its natural pabulum plant resistance can be
greatly exalted. If chemically nourished plants be defective in
certain vital resistance-conferring factors, then it is but natural to
assume that animals fed on such plants will similarly lack resis-
tance, and that human life, parasitic on both plant and animal,
173
will share the same defect. Conversely, human life nourished on
the products of a healthy soil should exhibit greatly exalted
resistance.
'What evidence is there of this? Again, much that is suggestive,
but we must beware of arguing too much by analogy. There are
many factors to consider. But apart from McCarrison's classic and,
one might add, conclusive experiments, to which Lord Teviot
referred in the debate in the Lords, there are many striking pheno-
mena which one cannot overlook. The diet, for example, and the
enormous disparity in physique and sickness-rates between the
Northern Indians-Sikhs, Pathans, and Hunzas- and the peoples
of the South. Or the Prince Edward Islanders described by Lord
Geddes, in his acutely analytical address in the same debate, as
"an extraordinarily vigorous and active population, and quite
remarkably the only social organization composed of Western
Europeans, which has not shown in the last fifty years a really
sharp fall in the birthrate". These islanders lack cities; they carry
on mixed farming "using muck and the products of the sea".
'Vigour, fertility and resistance. These are the qUalities we seek.
Are they to be ensured dietetically? What has modern dietetic
research to say? So far, one must admit, very little. Piecemeal
research on this or that vitamin complex goes forward, and here
and there one or other fragment of the mosaic of knowledge falls
into place, mostly from the chemical viewpoint. But the great
design still by much eludes us. That is surely because it consists
of a fusion of pictures superimposed one on the other. There is a
physical picture of the world and a chemical picture of the world,
but there are also ecological and biological pictures of the world,
and these, for our present purposes, represent the final and domin-
ant synthesis. To base our nutritional policy on our present rudi-
mentary-and mostly chemical-knowledge of dietetics, and in
particular, to denature foods, and to claim to restore them by the
addition of a few laboratory-made vitamins, has always seemed to
us an example of hubris that may yet be fittingly chastised. Lord
Teviot's friend, we are told, preferred to take his vitamins with his
knife and fork and spoon; we can only add that he has our sym-
pathy. It would be a simple matter, one imagines, to break up and
analyse a battery and fail to discover the electricity-suppose one
174
to be ignorant of its existence. The analogy need not be pressed.
'For our part we hasten to associate oursleves with Lord
Teviot's demand for a Royal Commission to inquire exhaustively
into the whole matter, and we call on the new Ministers of Food
and Health to lend their support. In this purse-proud capitalistic
age, soil fertility is our own true capital, and soil health the only
sure and lasting prop of public health in its widest and truest sense.
We place the issue before our readers, not for the first time, to
stimulate their interest and enlist their support. They will hear
more of it; we can be sure of that. For whatever way we look at it,
health begins in the soil.'
175
CHAPTER XVIII
REACTIONS-VOICES FROM ENGLAND,

NEW SOUTH WALES, CALIFORNIA, WES-
TERN AUSTRALIA, SOUTH AFRICA, EIRE
n this chapter 1 quote letters from our own country and all
I over the world, and leave them to speak for themselves.
'24 Russell Square,

London, W.C.l.
21st June 1944.
'Dear Mr. Sykes,
'I ought to have written sooner to thank you for our extraordin-
arily interesting and stimulating time at Chute, a visit which 1
bracket with my first visit to Stapledon's new Grass Experimental
Station near Haford many years ago, as one of the most significant
experiences in my so-called farming career. Both Done and 1 were
badly afflicted with hay-fever during our round of your farm, so
that I am afraid you may possibly have thought us undemonstra-
tive. If you have never had hay-fever you will not realize what an
awful affliction it is, and how it hampers communications between
the victim and other human beings. But in fact we were, all four of
us, very greatly impressed, and even McHardy's Scottish scepti-
cism was shaken by the sight of your wheatlands. We have also
decided to put our names down, or rather the name of All Souls
College, for a Muck Shifter. Our idea is to try it out at Minsted
first and then, if it justifies our hopes, to get one or two more for
use on our other estates by hiring to our tenants.
'I am not yet fully convinced that compost has all the virtues
claimed for it and artificials none of the virtues claimed for them,
and 1 should like eventually to see controlled experiments carried
out on our own land; but up to the present we have had to confine
ourselves to ordinary farming practice.
176
VOICES
'I was particularly glad to hear you tell McHardy that there was
nothing new in the compost idea, at least to Scottish farmers-
nor is there, of course, to any good traditional farmer. It was a
most tactful thing, to say to a Scot!
'Of course our problems at Minsted are exactly the reverse of
yours at Chantry. We took over a lavishly cultivated and manured
farm with first-rate equipment and buildings. We have already
discovered that the unexhausted artificial manurial values for
which we had to pay heavily are in fact almost worthless, and we
are writing them off completely at the end of our first two years.
So we are potential prey for Sir Albert Howard. But McHardy is
Scotch, 1 am Yorkshire, and Done is Cheshire, and altogether
we are an unbelieving lot!
'Although my firm is thought by some to be championing Sir
Albert Howard and his school, that is because de la Mare, not
himself a practising agriculturist, although a keen gardener, is a
convert. Personally I have been rather afraid that we might be
allying ourselves, I mean my publishing firm, too exclusively with
composters. Part of my doubts came from the fact that composting
on an ordinary farm requires so much labour to turn and shift and
spread, that it is just out of the question. I was most interested to
hear this view confirmed by you. Your machine is, no doubt, the
answer. It makes compost on a farm practical. But the other parts
of my doubts were, and still to some extent are, related to the
exceedingly far-going and ambitious claims made for this method
of farming, and the absolute nature of the accusations brought
against the use of artificials. Both the claims and the accusations
may be true, but 1 do not think they have been proved; especially
it has not been proved that the judicious combination of artificials
and organic manures is not a good thing. Equally, it has not been
proved that it is a good thing. We need a long-term experiment,
and there must be not simply experiments in organic versus arti-
ficial manures, but also experiments in the combination of the two.
'If 1 may be impertinent, 1 think your suggested experiments
ignore the necessity of combination experiments, but it may have
been that you were just talking against time. However all this may
be, the out-and-outers do seem to put compost everywhere as the
complete solution of all physical and sometimes mental ills. They.
177
VOICES
therefore, come under the risk of being regarded as the devotees of
a new panacea, and of being taken rather less seriously than they
should be by the hard-headed man who has to knock a living out
of the land. This is a tactical, indeed a strategical error. The whole
movement may be easily wrecked by the instinctive distrust which
all such claims always excite in most practical men. However, I
must not go rambling on like this. I am, if not a full convert,
rather more than anxious to get this complex business fully and
impartially and clearly worked out. Your performance at Chute is
simply astonishing. What is not clear is the part played in it by the
use of compost. Would your yields, after the refertilization by the
bail system, and after subsoiling and all the subsidiary acts of
cultivation, have been less than they are or less valuable than they
are if you had not been a composter? I do not know the answer
to that question-you may know it, but how can you prove your
knowledge?
'Writing hurriedly, as I am doing, after a tiring London day, I
cannot really get all I want to say on paper without turning a letter
into an essay, so I must make up my mind to break this letter off;
but I must not end without obeying my wife's instruction to say
that she took as great an interest in what you had to tell us and
show us, as did her three male companions, and in particular,
your prospective publisher.
'(Signed) GEOFFREY FABER'.
Sir Geoffrey Faber's visit to Chantry was in 1944. I wish he could

see the 400 acres of grain crops we are growing now.l am not exag-
gerating if I claim that they are 50 per cent better in 1958 than they
were in 1944. Part of this tremendous improvement is undoubtedly
due to the cumulative effects of Humus Farming. But humus cannot
claim the whole of the credit. Due recognition must be given to the
plant breeder who has made such amazing progress in providing
new and improved varieties. Allowance, too, must be made for the
increased mechanical effiCiency of tractors amd implements, enabling
cultivations to be done more thoroughly and with a timeliness un-
dreamt of only twenty short years ago.
178
VOICES
'No. 5 Terry Road, Eastwood,
Sydney, New South Wales,
Australia, 14.7.44.
'Mr. Sykes,
Chute, England.
'Dear Sir,
'Your article "Will there be a Second Black Death" sums up the
world position very concisely; unfortunately it is all too true. I am
enclosing a recent cutting from the Sydney Morning Herald and
which may interest you as it has all the portents of your picture
of the near future.
'Another pest, which has gradually spread from Queensland
into the north coast of New South Wales, is the cattle tick. Some
time ago the dairy farmers of this region were up in arms against
compulsory dipping of their cows as they contended that it caused
a drop in the milk supply. Officialdom won.
'In certain areas of N.S.W. the amount of superphosphate that
has to be used to obtain a wheat crop is approaching the point of
being uneconomic, and it is being realized that the stage has been
reached where the return of organic matter is necessary.
'The weight of tomatoes from a glasshouse operated by the bio-
dynamic method was between 2 and 4 lb. per case heavier than
those from houses operated by orthodox methods.
'Dr. Minton Connell of King Edward Island, Tasmania, has
described your Black Death as a classic. He also contends that the
Agricultural Testament should be in the library of every doctor.
'Wishing you continued success,
'Yours faithfully,
'(Signed) E. JEREMY'.
Newspaper cutting from 'Sydney Morning Herald' dated 9.6.44.

'On the land.
'BUFFALO FLY MENACE
'Southward Move
'BRISBANE, Thursday.-All efforts to check the southward move-
ment of the buffalo fly in Queensland had failed, said a veterinary
authority in Brisbane today.
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'It had assumed such proportions that central district cattle
authorities described it as "the most rapid insect invasion in
Queensland's history".
'Since its appearance north of Cairns about eighteen months ago
the fly had traversed hundreds of miles to the south, and had
entered the beef cattle districts of central Queensland. At its
present rate of progress the fly would enter the dairying districts
comparatively soon.
'Experience has shown that when a milking herd is attacked its
production goes down by half. The flies look like swarms of bees
on every beast and irritate them beyond measure day and night.
They live on blood and have a preference for bulls, although they
attack all cattle, especially those in poor condition.'
Memorandum/rom Major E. S. Pillsbury

'Santa Barbara,
California, U.S.A .
'To F. Sykes, Esqre., 30th September 1944.
Chantry, Chute,
Andover.
'Dear Mr. Sykes,

'1 have pleasure in setting out my system offarming in my lemon
groves near Santa Barbara, in the State of California.
'This land has a subsoil of Doby Clay, a geological formation
with which I believe you have made yourself familiar in your
travels through my country. The climatic conditions governing the
growth of lemons have an all-important bearing upon the success
of intensive lemon culture. Frost is one of our great enemies, and
many are the expedients to which we have to resort to keep our
trees protected during climatic changes, some of which come quite
suddenly. These precautions taken, the next subject is irrigation.
In a climate Ipce that of California where we get heavy rains during
the rainy season, followed by very hot, long dry periods, and
sometimes cold nights, our tasks are many that have to be per-
formed efficiently if we would be a really successful lemon grove
farmer. So important are all these several details, that once you
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VOICES
have got the right soil, the mechanical appliances to guard against
frosts and cold nights, the irrigation schemes made effective, the
price of a lemon grove plantation becomes something utterly
fantastic to the mind of an Englishman. The freehold value of a
first-class lemon grove in my Santa Barbara country is no less
than £750 per acre. This price sounds more like what you might
expect to pay for a building site, perhaps, in an important thorough-
fare like, say, Piccadilly, London. Yet, that is the price that is
readily paid for a good lemon grove of fifty-acre extent in my
district.
'That brings me to the all-important features that really make
the title "a good lemon grove".
'I began some twenty years ago, and I conceived the basic notion,
that if I would be really successful, and if I would have my success
well established over a long period of time, I must reJertilize with
organic manures as my basis of plant food.
'In addition to my lemon grove, I own a large ranch some fifty-
five miles away from Santa Barbara. There I collect my cattle dung,
mixed with adequate quantities of straw, bale it, and transport
those bales of farmyard muck, all that distance to my lemon
groves. There it arrives, but is not applied as a simple mulch to the
soil under the trees. The process is much more scientific than that.
'During our harvests of hay, we gather fairly large quantities of
waste grass, vetch, clover and other seeds. These, we sow liberally
underneath and round about our lemon trees. These sown we
spread a goodly dressing of the baled muck from the ranch.
'All this process is carried out just prior to the beginning of our
rainy season. Immediately the rain comes these seeds germinate
and grow with tropical luxuriance. When about twelve to eighteen
inches high we cut this growth, and allow it to rot where it is.
'Almost immediately through this fallen mass the grasses and
clovers grow in abundance again.
'These are again cut, and allowed to rot.
'This process continues for at least three, and sometimes four
cuttings during the rainy season.
'This system-which is my own technique-provides me with
all the organic manures and soil restoration that my plants could
possibly require.
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VOICES
'That the system I have thus carried out is all that I can wish it
to be, I am more than satisfied, for I have built up within the period
I have been farming in that district a healthy and heavy yielding
grove which is without equal.
'It is interesting, furthermore, to note, that I was the pioneer of
lemon farming in this valley near Santa Barbara. I was not long
alone. Many there were who followed me in this business. They,
however, thought they were much more scientific than I was. They
ignored and laughed at my laborious techniques of organic re-
fertilization, and substituted artificial manures for my organics.
Their trees, be it noted, came into quicker bearing, and with
heavier crops in the early days, than did mine. It is more than
interesting too for you to know that in many instances it has been
necessary to replant trees, and I believe in every case they have
dropped behind in both quality and quantity of production, while
mine are in fuller bearing now than ever they were. Moreover, I
can look forward to years of continued further growth, full-tree-
bearing, and financial prosperity, for my groves are healthy, in
grand trim, and produce fruit at all times of the finest grade and
qUality. I grow and harvest ten crops of lemons a year, in normal
times when there is sufficient labour available for picking.
'Since reading your scientific articles descriptive of your own
methods of farming in Wiltshire, here in England, I perceive you
have given my methods of refertilization, the title of "Sheet Com-
posting".
'And in very truth that is exactly what it is. Underneath my trees,
with the methods I have described, I carry out "Compost Making"
in its most effective form consistent with the climatic conditions
prevailing in my country. You are at liberty to add my humble
testimony to the dossier of evidence you are compiling, wherein
you seek to show to the world of farmers in every country the
'urgent necessity to regard the law of return in agriculture as being
based upon the return to the soil of all organic wastes in the form
of every conceivable leaf, twig, straw and other cellulose of veget-
able origin, and that these mixed with the dung and urine of
animals, acting as bacterial and chemical activators, mixed with
a sufficiency of moisture, make for the provision of humus, the
true plant food of all crops for both man and beast. Without
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VOICES
humus all land must sooner or later revert to desert conditions-
as we well know in the United States.
'Yours faithfully,
'(Signed) EVANS S. PILLSBURY'.
THE TRUSTEES OF THE WHEAT POOL OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA
'569 Wellington Street,

Perth, Western Australia.
'Mr. F. Sykes, 8th September 1944.
Chantry, Chute,
Wiltshire, England.
'Dear Mr. Sykes,
'My attention has been drawn to your article published in the
Medical and Press Circular of the 22nd December 1943, under the
title "Will there be a Second Black Death ?" I was greatly interested
as I have been thinking along rather similar lines for many years,
without arriving at a definite conclusion. I had already read Sir
Albert Howard's An Agricultural Testament.
'In this State, most of our soils are deficient in phosphoric acid
and consequently phosphatic manures-principally in the shape of
superphosphate- are used very extensively- perhaps more so than
anywhere else in the world. This applies to the growing of all crops
and the top dressing of pastures. Nitrogenous manures are used
mainly in the production of potatoes and by horticulturists but
many fruitgrowers and vignerons use superphosphate and legumes
- peas, beans, lupins, etc., instead of sulphate of ammonia. In
pastures it is extremely difficult to establish clovers or in fact, any
plants belonging to the legume family without first top-dressing
with superphosphate and in some cases infecting the seed with the
specific bacteria associated with the particular species.
'I am sending you an article from The Agricultural Journal of
Western Australia, which will show you we have our troubles even
with this type of pasture feeding. In some parts, mostly small,
there is insufficient copper or boron or cobalt in soils. Stock de-
pastured on these soils suffer from deficiency diseases but if the
missing chemical is added, immediate improvement takes place. I
think that even our very ingenious machinery manufacturers
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VOICES
would find difficulty in inventing a suitable subs oiling instrument
as most of our implements have to be of the stump-jump variety
and it is difficult to imagine an effective stump-jump subsoiler.
'I noted that your article "Will there be a Second Black Death 1"
was the second you had written on the subject. I would esteem it a
favour if you could let me have a copy of your earlier article.
'Yours sincerely,
'(Signed) H. E. BRAINE'.
, "Steenbras", Gilbert Street,

Grahamstown.
12th May 1944.
'Dear Mr. Sykes,
'My own work on nutrition has led me to doubt whether South
Mrica can produce sufficient dairy products to supply every citizen
with a natural, health-giving diet. We have had considerable
success with our nutritional experiments, but realize that ulti-
mately health depends on soil fertility.
'If only a few more people who "can" would "teach", the world
would regain some measure of sanity. There are probably more
people to-day than you realize who will find in your writings some-
thing for which they have been waiting. In every country there are
signs of a "back to Nature" movement for real health.
'With every good wish for the universal acceptance of your
ideas,
'Yours sincerely,
'(Signed) MRS. M. M. SMITH.'
'Dear Sir,
'I have just finished reading your book, Humus and the Farmer.
-For a week the family have not been able to get a word out of me
while reading. It was wonderful.
'My life and yours are on a different plane. I feel you would be
interested from my angle, according with your own experience.
There will be difficulty in expressing myself, as my education was
not on a par with present-day standards. I was born in a built-up
area with not a vestige of green leaf to be seen. The impact on my
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VOICES
mind as a very young child is one not to be forgotten ... that of
my first sight of a green field.
'In my home there was no importance, imagination or intelli-
gence attached to food or the preparation of it. My father died
years before he should have done, a sister was lost at the age of
fifteen. My mother ailed always and spent the last ten years of her
life in a non-active, semi-invalid way. The rest of us ailed con-
tinually, with toothache, sore throats, temperatures, rickets, coated
tongues, bad breath. There was much irritability and we seemed
always to be treading on one another's toes and warring. In my
twenties I suffered badly from rheumatism.
'Accordingly, today, at the age of sixty-two, I should be a com-
plete rheumatic cripple. There is no rheumatism in my body now,
and the reason is set out in this letter.
'At the age of twenty-seven I married, and I was no picture of
fine womanhood. My weight was and still is just over seven stone.
Yet I reared and suckled five children, the last three born without
the attendance of a doctor.
'To my good fortune shortly after my marriage, some ancestor's
trait rose to the surface and I started to take a deep interest in
food and cooking. Up to then the words diet and nutrition were
simply not in my vocabulary. About 1920 to 1925 there was not
the written matter about diet and nutrition that there is today.
Notwithstanding, I read everything about food and cooking I
could lay my hands on.
'I had a long way to go and my ignorance was colossal.
'My hubby had a perpetual cough and frequent bad colds and
I would have stiff necks and sore throats.
'For a small six-roomed house we have a fair-sized garden and
in a field at the bottom of the garden are some allotments. For a
long time I had a wish to cultivate one of these but my hubby was
not interested.
'When war broke out in 1939 my chance came. On a plea of
national emergency I prevailed and we took half an allotment.
Also, I must admit, I nattered until he built me a small hut and
run to keep a few hens.
'My knowledge as to the care of hens and the growing of veget-
ables was nil. We commenced with nine hens. In a short time I lost
185
VOICES
the majority. 1 did not give up but by dint of attending the village
poultry club, asking questions, reading, and then developing a
technique of my own, it has been a success.
'At the moment there are twenty-nine hens and if more than
two die in twelve months through sickness, 1 think it is a bad
record. 1 have two small runs, which I use alternately, but which in
less than a week become devoid of any grown greenstuif. Con-
sequently, fresh greenstuffhas to be fed to the hens daily. You will
know what quantities they can devour.
'I keep a small rake and shovel handy, and every time the hens
are fed the droppings are picked up from the run. In that way the
runs are kept fairly sweet and the manure is of better value on the
compost heap.
'I sell three or four dozen eggs a week to the local fishmonger,
and that just about pays for meal and grain for them, and we gain
an unlimited supply of new-laid eggs with a good white and a deep
yolk.
'Now to tell you about the allotment. I bravely took the spade
the first time, quite excited. In fifteen minutes I was all in and had
to give up.
'Now we have two bigger than average allotments and I can
dig as good as any man. As far as my knowledge takes me the soil
looks in good condition.
'I have learnt what it means to love the soil. There is also a spade
I use which nearly talks to me. Shiny and a beautiful edge to it.
Woe betide anybody who puts it away dirty. We make as much
compost as we can, using the hen manure on all sorts of weeds
and rubbish.
'We have our failures, of course, but we keep ourselves the year
round in potatoes, turnips, onions, beetroot, peas and beans in
season. Tomatoes for four or five months. Raspberries, straw-
. berries, gooseberries and rhubarb, fresh and bottled. It all sounds
good and it is good, from both a health and a financial point of
view. We use no artificials at all.
'My husband has lost his cough completely, and it is an event
for him to catch cold. The only thing I suffer from is a growling
of muscles in the back, due to over-zeal in lifting compost, digging
trenches for peas and beans and wheeling a too-full barrow. I
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VOICES
realized it more so when you spoke about your men refusing to
handle the compost and manure.
'We live on an incline, and I can run to the top without loss of
breath, I see my neighbours pulling themselves up the hill then
they stand puffing, and saying, "This hill does take it out of me!"
When there were seven of is, plus a grandfather, my working hours
daily were sixteen. Today there are only four of us, but the hours
still amount to ten or eleven.
'I do, and always have done, all the washing (without a washing
machine), never buy a loaf, cake or tinned soup. Make a regular
supply of white and wholewheat bread. Make most of my own
clothes and do most of the decorating. Impossible, 1 can hear you
say but the evidence is here. Not that 1 would care for anybody
of your standard to pay a visit! After the wide open spaces your
eyes are used to, this place would seem like a pig in a poke.
'Two years ago my husband and I spent one week in Keswick
and in six days we walked over fifty miles.
'This September we spent two weeks with a son outside Cam-
bridge.
'We sort of made a tour of Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, took
bus rides and then walked. We covered over seventy miles.
'To be able to do that at our age is a test of our health and
stamina, which I put down to well-cooked food and fresh vegetables.
'Even the dog never ails; not a penny is spent on his food, just
the residue of the stock pot. He is twelve years old and has never
seen a vet.
'May I now say a word about the children, they too are fit and
A.I. One would have to go a long way to find a happier family.
'Each one goes his or her way but they never seem to collide and
there is no bickering, no fits of depression, only joyous laughter.
'They do not lose time through sickness and all work hard. The
youngest girl had an attack of Asian 'fiu and was off work two
days, which she considered a blemish on her character.
'What has been achieved on a non income-tax salary amazes me
when I look back.
'Another thing that amazes me is that each child followed the
way I wished, and that without once hearing from their father or
myself, "You must do this or that". A gentle push here or a pull
187
VOICES
there, with plenty of encouragement is all we tried to do. The
beauty of it is that each believe they have followed their own in-
clination.
'1 guess 1 must have been clever in sensing their capabilities or
else there is more in wishful thinking than meets the eye. The
eldest one, a boy of thirty-four, married with three children, is an
arts master in a modern secondary school and was a navigator
during the war. The next, a girl aged thirty-two, spent three years
during the war in Devon in the Land Army, then eleven years in
the nursing profession. She recently married a farmer in North
Wales. The next, a boy aged thirty-one, was an officer in a Welsh
regiment during the war and is now married, with one daughter,
and lives outside Cambridge. He is an assistant pathologist in the
cereal department of the Cambridge Plant Breeding Station, work-
ing under Dr. Bell.
'The next, a boy of twenty-four has served his two years in the
Army and is a trainee with Cubitt's the builders, for seven months
of the year in college and five with this firm, and hopes to qualify
as a civil engineer early next year. The last one, a girl aged twenty-
one, is a secretary in the nuclear physics department of Liverpool
University.
'1 may be forgiven if 1 say we feel proud of being instrumental
in sending out into the world five healthy men and women who
obviously will be of value to their fellow-citizens. 1 maintain that
without good food for a grounding it could not have been done.
1 guess you will agree with me.
'1 have a long time wanted to put this on paper and in my mind
have composed letters to Mr. Louis Bromfield and to Mr. R.
Wightman. At last 1 have mustered the courage and you are to be
the recipient. If you are interested and read to the end-thank you.
If not, nobody will be the loser, only I shall have gained in the
pleasure of putting a brief survey on paper.
'Hope in some way I have been able to convey what 1 wished.
'Thank you again for the pleasure and knowledge your book has
given me. We cannot be too thankful that there are men like you
with us today.
'Yours sincerely,
GWEN HUGHES.'
18,8
VOICES
AN ENCOUNTER IN AN IRISH RAILWAY TRAIN

A few years ago when I was travelling by train from Dublin to
Westport, on the West Coast of Ireland, I was awakened from a
sleep by the incursion of a passenger into my compartment. He
made so much noise with his suitcases and golf-clubs that sleep
was not possible in the presence of such turmoil. My fellow pas-
senger, a Roman Catholic priest, noticed that he had disturbed my
nap, and apologized for it. Having awakened me he began a con-
versation. Presently I inquired if he was returning from a holiday,
to which he replied: 'Not exactly. I have been away recuperating
after an operation.' To this I made an observation somewhat to
the effect that, since he was a Catholic priest, I was surprised that
he should ever be ill. 'And why should a Catholic priest not be ill
occasionally?' he asked. 'Well, my understanding of a priestly
responsibility is that it involves setting a good example to his
followers. He ought to be the embodiment of complete physical
and mental health. His life should be so ordered by impeccable
living, eating of correct food, and drinking of suitable beverages,
that his bodily vigour should be perfect. This would ensure clarity
and vigour of mind. In other words mentally and physically he
would be a whole man. The fact that he had been in the hands of
a surgeon recently suggested that his bodily appointments were
not functioning truly, and that as a priest his example was falling
below the level he ought to aim at. He hastened to assure me that
he was more than grateful for the observations I was making, that
he had never thought in that way before, and could I make some
practical suggestion as to how he could alter his method of living
in order to attain such perfection. So I told him that to enjoy per-
fect health, he must consume life-sustaining food, for we are what
we eat. If our food is wholesome, unprocessed by chemical addi-
tives, good health must eventuate. If the food is imperfect then bad
health will result. Bad health is evidence that nutrition has been
faulty.
Why should food be faulty? Where does food come from? It
comes from the soil. Then if it is imperfect, the soil must be blame-
worthy. Why so? Through bad farming, unsatisfactory restoration
189
VOICES
by the farmer of the fertility he is continually extracting to produce
his crops.
How could the soil be regenerated? By returning to the soil all
the wastes of vegetable, animal and man. These would make new
humus, the food for the untold millions of micro-organic organisms
of the soil. If they, the unpaid labour force of the farm, were ade-
quately fed with correct food-humus-then the soil would be
exalted, better food would be available for man and beast who
consume it, and they would reflect the worth of that food in a
higher standard of health. If my reasoning was correct, the fact
that he had been in the hands of the surgeon was some evidence
that his body had suffered from unsatisfactory nourishment. This
was probably due to bad farming.
To cut a long story short, I spent the next hour in entertaining
him with all my theories of humus farming, all to be found in the
pages of Humus and the Farmer, and my other writings. He was
enthralled. I ended up by giving him, free, gratis, and for nothing,
a copy of Humus and the Farmer, which I happened to have in my
suitcase, together with a loaf of wholemeal bread, without which I
never travel far from my native heath. For all this he was pro-
foundly grateful, and when he finally took leave of me, told me his
name. He said he would eat my bread, read whatever the pages of
my book had to relate, and would write me at a later date, telling
me the results of what he proposed to tryout.
That, I thought, might have been the end of the story, but some
time later, he wrote telling me what a revelation all this new think-
ing had proved itself to be. He was enjoying a standard of health
he had never known before, and how thankful he was for the
trouble I had taken! He hoped that never again would he have to
seek the help of surgery.
190
25. Sectional view of ground after subsoiling
CHAPTER XIX
'THE RAPE OF THE EARTH'
n writing their excellent work in connection with a world sur-
I vey of soil erosion, The Rape of the Earth, Messrs. Jacks and
Whyte say that 'to gain control over the soil is the greatest
achievement of which man is capable. The organization of civilized
society is founded upon the measures to wrest control of the soil
from wild nature and not until complete control passes into human
hands can a staple superstructure of what we call civilization be
erected on the land. Great advances in science, particularly in
transport during the last hundred years, has enabled civilized men
to penetrate into every comer of the earth carrying with them the
mixed blessings and curses of civilization. They have planted the
tree of European civilization over four continents, and in some
places it has appeared to thrive.
'Scarcely anywhere has it taken a firm root in the soil, for Euro-
pean men, despite their skill and power over nature, have learnt
only how to cultivate the soil in European climates. Modem
civilization, outside Europe, is more like a plant that will burst
into bud and blossom for a short time, rather than like a tree that
will grow indefinitely and make its own fertile soil. All goes well
with the plant while it continues to blossom, but the flower soon
fades and the plant on which it blossoms dies.
'All seemed well with civilization in the century of expansion
which followed the industrial revolution. It was a beneficent
growth, destined to take possession of the world, and to receive a
new lease of life in the new world as it grew old and declined in
Europe; but for some years before the Great War dangerous, faint,
and usually unnoticed signs were appearing. The early promises
of the new countries were not fulfilled, the economic depreciation
of the late 1920's brought these matters to a head. The Depression
p 191
made the peoples of the world take stock of their position. They
felt that the structure of civilization was tottering and those who
lived on the ground floor near to the earth began to investigate the
suitability of the foundations of the soil. Those in the upper stories
were too interested in politics and science and were nearer to the
light and sun. They were fully occupied in propping up their totter-
ing dwelling places and gave no thought to the foundations without
which all their efforts would be in vain. Only within the last few
years have some of the shakings of the upper stories been traced
to the crumbling foundations, for as a result solely of human mis-
management the soils upon which men have attempted to found
new civilizations are disappearing-washed away by water, blown
away by wind. Today, the destruction of the earth's thin living
covering is proceeding at a rate and on a scale unparalleled in
history; without this thin covering the soil is gone, the fertile
regions where it formerly lay will be uninhabitable deserts. Al-
ready indeed probably nearly a million square miles of desert have
been formed-a far larger area is approaching desert conditions
and throughout the New World erosion is taking its relentless toll
of soil fertility with incredible and ever-increasing impetus.
'Science with its new aids to agriculture, new machines that aid
the work of a score of men, new crop varieties that thrive in clim-
ates formerly considered too hard for agriculture, new fertilizers
at double and treble strength, makes the world move. There is a
limit to the extent to which applied science can temporarily force
up soil productivity-there is no limit except zero to which erosion
can permanently reduce it. A nation cannot survive in a desert nor
enjoy more than a hollow and short lease of prosperity by con-
suming its soil; that is what all the new lands of promise have been
doing for the last 100 years, though few as yet have felt the full
consequences. Soil erosion is altering the course of the world more
radically than in any war or revolution. Erosion is humbling
mighty nations, reshaping their domestic and external policies, and
once and for all it has barred the way to the Eldorado which a few
years ago seemed almost within reach. Erosion in nature is a
beneficent process without which the world would have died long
ago. The same process accelerated by human mismanagement be-
comes one of the most vicious and destructive forces that have ever
192
been released by man. What is usually known as "geological eros-
ion" or "denudation" is a universal phenomenon, which through
thousands of years has carved the earth into its present shape.
Denudation is an early and important process of soil formation,
whereby the original rock material is continuously broken down
and sorted out by wind and water and becomes suitable for the
colonization of plants. On the desert fringe of the Persian and
Carthaginian Empires, soil exhaustion, crop failures and land
abandonment allowed the desert sands to encroach relentlessly, the
people, weakened at the source of their strength, to fall a prey to
human conquerors, and were first doomed to be overwhelmed by
the drifting sands now covering the precious fields where Darius
ruled and the North Mrican plains where Hannibal defended the
rich lands of Carthage against the Romans. But as the soils upon
which these ancient civilizations were founded were being washed
away or covered over with sand and mud, other civilizations
possessing new knowledge and powers were growing up along the
eastern and northern shores of the Mediterranean. The might of
Greece and Rome had its origin in the mastery of the art of con-
tinuous cultivation on forest land-a notable advance on the shift-
ing cultivation whereby the forest re-occupied the land after a few
years and compelled the cultivators to adopt, at best, a nomadic
tribal existence.'
This brief extract from The Rape of the Earth is sufficient to
introduce the voice from the United States of America which
comes to me from Dr. Hugh Hammond Bennett, the chief of the
Soil Conservation Service, United States Department of Agricul-
ture at Washington, D.C. I am honoured to have had correspon-
dence with Dr. Bennett and I have permission to reproduce, as I
now do, extracts from broadcasts which he made to the Union of
South Mrica in June of 1943. These refer to the work that has been
done in America to combat the many forms of soil exploitation
there, exploitation which originated in the bad farming of the
early settlers. It has resulted in millions of acres being left derelict,
to be followed by every conceivable kind of land erosion. It is
interesting to note that as a result of the fourteen years' work
which the United States Government have given to this subject,
they are in a position now to say that they can save much of their
193
land from permanent erosion, and that they may be able to main-
tain their enormous population from the products of their own soil.
It is especially interesting also, to learn that the data which Dr.
Bennett was able to put before the United Nations Food Confer-
ence at Hot Springs, Virginia, in May 1943, did much to influence
many of the decisions which were taken by the delegates. All this
evidence points to the fact that the farming of the past hundred
years has not been a farming which put the land first. The land
must be first and must remain first all the time.
I will now quote from a talk by Hugh Hammond Bennett, Chief
Soil Conservation Service, United States Department of Agricul-
ture, which was transcribed by the U.S. Office of War Information
Overseas Branch in Washington, D.C., for broadcasting to South
Africa (24th June 1943).
'No. I-World Erosion and Productive Soil.
'In the devastating war now enveloping the globe, the people of
South Africa and of the United States, together with those of the
other United Nations, have found a powerful ally in the produc-
tive land that we possess. This ally is as powerful as the bullets
and tanks and submarines of the enemy.
'The United Nations control by far the largest and best portion
of the earth's supply of agricultural land. And good farm land, in
the final analysis, is the source of man's strength. From productive
soil we get food and fibre for our armies and factory workers-for
everybody.
'But we should not be misled in evaluating this asset. Many
people believe the world's supply of productive soil is practically
endless. Nothing could be further from the truth. Actually, the
available supply of productive land for all mankind is severely
limited. Only about 11 per cent of the earth's total land area is
capable of cultivation now or in the immediate future. This rela-
tively small fragment of the earth is all the human family can draw
upon immediately-and the other areas that eventually may be
brought into use are neither abundant nor conveniently distri-
buted. At present the other 89 per cent of the land of the world
cannot furnish man with the necessities of life.
'Thus, the world today faces a scarcity of :productive soil.
Some two billion people depend for sustenance on only four
194
billion acres. Moreover, the supply, already so limited, is steadily
shrinking. Erosion is constantly damaging productive soil by
stripping away the topsoil and by cutting ravines across the fields,
thus undermining the productivity of the land.
'All over the globe, erosion, like a plague, has made much of the
once-productive earth less productive or barren. South Mrican
farmers understand this, just as do the farmers of America, China,
and Australia.
'When the soil loses its capacity to produce, a farmer cannot
remain on that land. He retreats before the drive of erosion-as
wind and rain strip off the topsoiL Whole civilizations have fallen
before the attack of this aggressive enemy. And the tragedy is the
greater, because it need never have happened. Man brought it on
himself by abusing the land. Much of the abuse came about unin-
tentionally or unconsciously; but some of it-too much of it-
was the result of carelessness and exploitation.
'There are two kinds of erosion-natural erosion and man-made
erosion. Wind and rain are part of eternal nature. They always beat
against the surface of the earth, gradually changing its appearance
and its structure. Geology shows us that this kind of erosion has
worn down high mountain ranges and turned them into mere hills.
This natural erosion, however, is not harmful as a rule. It goes on
very slowly; soil is built up from the materials beneath at the same
time topsoil is being removed from the surface. The process in-
volves centuries; it's a continuing activity. Man at first had little
conception of the delicate soil balance maintained under a protec-
tive cover of vegetation. Only recently have we come to understand
the full building and sustaining effect vegetation has on land.
'Rains falling on trees and grass do not strike the bare land to
loosen the soil particles. Instead, the tangle of plant life catches
and dissipates the beating, gouging effect of raindrops, and other-
wise protects the soil and allows the ground to drink up and store
the rainfall for crop use. And wind cannot blow away soil that is
tied down by grass or other dense vegetative cover.
'Under natural conditions a good depth of rich topsoil is slowly
developed. Plants live and die in the same place and, so, contribute
their decaying materials to enrichment of the soil.
'But man upsets this balance of Nature. With his axes and
195
ploughs he clears away the protective cover and turns the soil up-
side down. His cattle graze the grass down to the very roots.
Wherever agriculture spreads, the earth has been exposed to rain
and wind. On flat lands and steep lands, on both dry and wet areas,
agriculture has paved the way for man-made erosion. Water pour-
ing down hillsides with nothing to obstruct its flow, tears away the
topsoil, finally exposing the subsoil. And subsoil, as farmers
everywhere know only too well, is not real soil. Usually, it is
difficult to handle and crop yields are low. Often, with the topsoil
gone, with slopes deeply dissected by gullying, farmers have to
look for new land.
'Our best estimates of the land situation incticate that from two-
thirds to three-fourths of the world's available supply is subject
to erosion. Of this, at least one-third already has been seriously
damaged, because of such wasteful practices as up-and-down-hill
farming, continuous use of soil for a single exhausting crop, or
cultivation of steep land that should be used only for grass or trees.
'We in the United States have done our part in this costly
wastage of priceless soil. Because the country was large and had an
abundance of new land to replace fields that wore out, early settlers
had little regard for any such thing as soil conservation. And so,
finally, we fell heir to great areas of impoverished and wasted
cropland, together with other evils of soil erosion, such as dust
storms, increasing .flood hazards, and the filling of ditches and
reservoirs with eroded soil.
'In South Africa, parts of the country are similar to parts of the
United States. You, too, know that one of the penalties for over-
grazing in low rainfall country is less forage on the range and in-
creasing erosion damage to the land. Erosion of the veld has been
due, I am informed, chiefly to mismanagement of stock and burn-
ing of brush, just as we have worn out grazing lands on our
, western ranches.
'Erosion must and can be halted, both as a measure of war
efficiency and as the soundest kind of economic safeguard. For-
tunately, the needs of man and the needs of Nature can be har-
monized, under a policy of wise land use. Land hunger and popula-
tion pressures probably were factors that helped bring on this war.
At any rate, freedom from want is the promised goal of our ulti-
196
mate victory. Erosion and security are completely incompatible.
Through a sound programme of soil and water conservation,
already tested and proved, we can check further damage to the
world's limited supply of agricultural land, so that there may be
more food for more people everywhere.
'No.2-World Conservation.
'War and peace in our time will be decided not only on the
battlefields and around conference tables, but on the farmlands of
the world. Production and distribution of food are a vital part of
our war programme. We of the United Nations are determined
to win not only the war, but the peace to follow. How well we shall
succeed, how stable and enduring a peace we shall build out of
the flaming horror of war, will depend largely on how wisely we
use our croplands and grazing lands in Africa and America and
the rest of the United Nations.
'As never before, wise use of productive soil is a duty of the
individual farmer and of each of our co-operating nations. We
have learned that when the soil is mistreated and unprotected, it
deteriorates and wears out, losing its capacity to produce. We need
every foot of productive soil that we have. To allow the producing
capacity of land to decline is worse than extravagance. It is inter-
national suicide. Impoverished soil produces less food and inferior
food. And worn-out soil means worn-out people.
'Erosion has left its mark everywhere, and many countries have
been forced to consider the food problems of their people. The
total cropland now available to the world is barely enough to
supply a minimum diet. It is not enough to provide an adequate
diet. Continued carelessness in th~ use of land will mean still
further decline of our limited store of agricultural land-and this
will mean less food for a world that promises to be terribly hungry
some time in the near future.
'Not far from my office in the Department of Agriculture here
in Washington, a remarkable meeting has just come to an end.
'It was not a meeting on military matters. This was a gathering
of delegates from forty-four nations-including the Union of
South Africa-to talk about food. Food production and food
distribution.
'I think this was one of the most significant meetings of the
197
United Nations, because food happens to be an item of vital im·
portance. The side that has more and better food for its soldiers,
and for the factory workers who make planes and tanks and bullets,
and for the people on the home front, is the side that will win the
war and decide the peace terms.
'All the food talks in the world would be a waste of time without
soil to grow the food. A lot of people take food for granted, as if
it were something you get simply by dropping some seed into the
soil-any kind of soil-and then waiting for the sun and the rain
to bring forth a crop. It doesn't work as simply as that.
'Continued production of food depends on good productive soil.
There used to be an abundance of productive soil. That was before
man cut down the trees, ploughed up the grasslands, and exploited
the land. Fields were ravaged by wind and rain. You won't have
to look far back in history to find out what happened to countries
that allowed such wastage. Much of the deserts and denuded hills
of China once were covered with forests and grass. The Garden of
Eden, that was Mesopotamia, is now largely a great waste area.
The once fertile lands of Babylon and Assyria have reached a stage
of agricultural decadence. The list could be extended indefinitely
to include other places that have declined because the soil was
allowed to decline.
'Erosion of the soil has been going on at such a rapid rate that
we no longer have an abundance of productive soil anywhere in
the world. What we do have we must protect with utmost vigilance,
not only for our own salvation, but for those who will come after
us.
'This war that the United Nations did not start, did not want,
and tried to avoid, is costing these nations billions in money and
uncountable values in human lives.
'All these human and material resources are being spent to
-preserve security, decency, and freedom in the world-to guarantee
as nearly as possible that basic provision implicit in the Atlantic
Charter, "freedom from want", together with its other warranties
for mankind. In other words, this stupendous cost is to safeguard
ourselves and the better things of the world-the rights of human
beings everywhere to the fundamentals of life, including enough
food to eat.
198
'But we may as well understand-all the world may as well un-
derstand now-that there is no way to guarantee an adequate
supply for all the people of the world just with written docu-
ments, with laws or international agreements, or by any other
possible way except by having enough good soil to produce the
food. That is an undebatable physical fact; and the fact cannot be
altered. Recognizing tbis we can, if we exert ourselves, really do
something about the food needs of the world.
'Enough food for everybody on earth is an almost inconceivable
quantity of food, the production of which would require almost
superhuman effort on the farms of the world. It's a tremendous
task, and great tasks are never easy.
'This undertaking of producing enough food for the world is
difficult for more than one reason. The problems of labour, equip-
ment, and capital beset many farmers, everywhere; they are
familiar problems, but they are not the only ones involved with the
food supply.
'Given modern equipment in good condition, adequate labour,
and enough capital to buy seed and fertilizer- if they are available
-you still will need two things, two essential things; you must have
productive soil and you must have moisture.
'We don't have any too much good soil left in the world-and
that is another problem-and a very critical one.
'As I have said in previous broadcasts, there are, as a matter of
sober fact, only about four billion acres of cropland in the world,
to feed the two billion human beings who live on the earth. That's
only two acres per person-and two and a half acres of reasonably
productive land per person are required to produce what we North
Americans have come to consider even an adequate diet.
'And that isn't all: by no means all of this four billion acres of
land is good land. Millions of acres have been practically exhausted
by centuries of continuous cultivation and erosion. Other millions
of acres have been damaged in varying degrees by the erosive action
of wind and water. The part that has not been damaged and isn't
subject to erosion is pitifully small-far under the two and a half
acre minimum.
'Tbis is vitally important-we've got to use that land we have
wisely. There is no more land to lose through unnecessary neglect
199
and erosion; every acre should go to work-in the most efficient
possible way.
'The world needs more food today than it has ever produced.
The need is urgent, immediate, continuing, for the world must
have food after the flames of war have died down. Even before
the war, some parts of the world, with shortages of productive
land, suffered most of the time from hunger, and famine was of
frequent occurrence.
'We can meet this need through wise use of our soil and water
resources-that is by employing scientific farming methods that
will give larger crop yields per unit of land, while at the same time
maintaining the productivity of the soil.
'This can be done-very largely-through the use of soil con-
servation farming methods. That's the answer to our problem, as
simply as I can put it. But first we must understand what conser-
vation farming is-how it works, how really simple it is, after all.
'Soil conservation, first of all, is not magic. It's just common
sense, pretty much. It's using your land so as to get all that can
safely be gotten from it while still keeping it up-in producing
condition.
'Use ofland for the things it is best fitted to produce is the basic
precept of soil conservation farming. That means growing the
erosion-inducing crops-like corn, cotton, and tobacco-on land
that is not subject to violent erosion, or on land that has been
protected against erosion. It means, for example, not growing
these clean-tilled crops on steeply sloping land that should be in
hay or timber because of its ready susceptibility to washing.
'To put it another way, conservation farming involves planning
the use of land according to the capability and needs of the parti-
cular land in question. If economic conditions, habits or cultures,
or other man-made situations or circumstances interfere, ways and
means for altering such difficulties or adjusting them, must be
found, else the hazard of hunger will remain. The physical facts,
we cannot write off or overlook.
'No farmer with his wits about him would take a map of his
farm, shut his eyes, and place his finger on a field and say, "I'll
grow corn here". But far too many farmers in the past have done
almost that-they've planted corn and other erosion-inducing crops
200
without regard to soil type, slope, or natural adaptability of the
land. Now, the days of such hit-or-miss farming methods are ending
-today and from now one must arrange for our farm operations to
meet the conditions and limitations imposed by the land itself.
'Soil conservation increases crop yields per unit qf land and
protects the land for future production.
'The world's farmlands are its most vital, most precious re-
sources. In their proper use and maintenance, lies not only the
future of the land itself, but the future of all nations, great and
small-even the future of mankind. For people will need food
today, tomorrow, and for ever.
'The increasing tendency of OUI farmers to use their lands wisely
and to protect them must spread across the earth, if we hope to
produce the food that will bring the people of the world nearer to
international understanding, security, and peace.'
In concluding Dr. Bennett's broadcast to South Mrica, it is of
more than ordinary interest to examine how the United States
themselves are placed. Here vast areas of one-time virgin land
were made into farms, and recently a careful appraisal has been
carried out on the present conditions of the agricultural land.
The figures are staggering. No less than 253,000,000 acres, or
61 per cent of the total area under crops, has suffered from soil
erosion to such an extent that it had either been completely
destroyed, or had lost most of its value. Only 161,000,000 acres,
or 39 per cent of the cultivated area could safely be farmed by
present methods. In less than a century the United States has lost
nearly three-fifths of its agricultural capital. The root of this soil
erosion trouble is the misuse of the land-the disappearance of
humus-Nature's great stabilizer of the soil. Had American agri-
culturalists farmed to conserve her humus, America would never
have had a soil erosion problem, which now threatens her extinction.
Sir Albert Howard says:
'In dealing with erosion the root cause must be emphasized, viz.
the destruction of the humic cement of the compound soil
particles. These have to be repaired all the time. The cement
needed is provided by the specks of glue of the right size left by
the dead bodies of the soil bacteria which in turn depend on the
supply of humus.'
201
CHAPTER XX
WHOLE-WHEAT GRAIN (BREAD). WHEAT

HEALTH PORRIDGE; MEDICAL OPINION;
BRITISH WHEAT THE BEST IN THE
WORLD
M
y management of livestock, which differs from accepted
practice in various ways, is a direct consequence of the
fact that at one time I was myself in a very unsatisfactory
state of health. My return to normal health and to a high degree of
enjoyment of life is entirely due to the attention I have given to
diet, and in particular to the use of whole-grain bread, and whole-
grain porridge. This bread should be made from wheat which is
grown on compost land and, in particular, on land that has not
been fertilized by artificial manures. The bread that we eat at my
home is better than anything I have tasted anywhere in the world
and every visitor to the house remarks upon it.
I can think of nothing which is so important to the race of man
at the present time as that he should speedily return to the consump-
tion of whole-wheat bread, rather than the 80 or 85 per cent loaf
to which he is now condemned. There are many reasons for this.
It is at least an interesting coincidence that sterility, or barren-
ness, in women coincides with the introduction of the white loaf.
I have found too, that when any of my animals have refused to
breed, or become barren, I can invariably get them to recommence
'breeding by feeding wheat-germ meal into their diet, for about two
months-this introduces vitamin E into their blood-stream and
within a couple of months I find that they start breeding. Similarly,
if a woman fails to have children, if she eats whole-wheat bread
she generally finds that she is able to have a family. Why this in-
formation is not more widely known both to the ordinary man in
the street and to farmers in particular, I cannot understand. The
202
WHOLE-WHEAT GRAIN (BREAD)
knowledge is available to our doctors and to our veterinary sur-
geons, but for some reason or other they do not seem to pass it on,
either to the farmer or to the community.
This is an omission which lies at the door of both those two
eminent professions. There are many doctors, be it said, who have
agitated for years for a return to the whole-grain loaf, and in this
particular few have shown more energy than the Member of
Parliament for London University, Sir Ernest Graham-Little,
M.D., F.R.C.P.
I should very much like to dilate at considerable length upon
the work that Sir Ernest Graham-Little has done in connection
with 'The Great Bread Mystery' . Space in this book, however,
precludes my doing other than make the shortest possible reference
thereto. He has dealt with this subject so ably in a brochure issued
under the title The Great Bread Mystery that I feel it my duty to
refer readers to that record.
That influential journal The Medical Press and Circular is con-
tinuously drawing the attention of the medical fraternity, and of
the public alike, to the national need of the whole-grain loaf, and
in their article 'Unsolved Enigma', which is reproduced here, it
will be seen what severe criticisms they have to bestow upon the
former Minister of Food, Lord Woolton.
They have returned to this onslaught again and again, but up
to the present the milling interests and the Government take no
notice of either Sir Ernest Graham-Little or the Medical Press.
It is sometimes argued that British wheat is not good milling
wheat. In a bad season like 1944, when so much rain fell during
harvest time, there can be no doubt about it that the British wheat
suffered most terribly. At the same time, when we can find a better
method of harvesting (such as the intra-molecular respiration of
the enzymes system referred to in another chapter) there is no
reason why British wheat should not be regularly harvested in
good condition, and there is no wheat in the world with the quality
that is produced from British humus-filled soil.
UNSOLVED ENIGMA
'The recent debate in the House of Commons gave the new
203
Minister of Food an opportunity to review our food situation in
the light of nearly five years of war. The Minister's speech was
not untinged with complacency. "Things", he declared at the
outset, "are going well on the food front"; and in his peroration
he concluded: "The Ministry of Food is jealous of the reputation
it has built up. Its staff has a strong and deep desire to serve the
people well, to maintain their fighting strength and their fitness in
factory and field. The remarkable health record of the nation
during the war and, above all, the health of the children, has been
their chief reward. It is my aim so to lead the great team I have
that the reward will still be theirs."
'Perhaps a certain amount of complacency on the Minister's
part might well be pardoned. His ministry has certainly done its
most difficult work with the good will, with zeal and, for the most
part, with commendable sagacity. As he justly claimed, infant
mortality has touched a new low level, and mercifully we haw
been spared a major epidemic. But to suppose that the general
standard of well-being marches with the figures is, in our view,
absurd. The figures for maternal and neonatal mortality, for
example, are for persons for whom special provision has been
made, nor are they uninfluenced by the availability of our powerful
new bactericidal drugs. The same applies to the figures for in-
fectious diseases, with the addition of immunization as a preven-
tive of diphtheria. But there are no figures for minor ailments, such
as dyspepsia or sporadic entero-colitis, and none for gastritis,
duodenitis, or peptic ulceration. The figures for pulmonary tuber-
culosis give little grounds for satisfaction. On the whole, however,
considering the circumstances, we may forgive and even applaud
the Minister's satisfaction with his ministry. With one exception.
'That is our bread. The Minister hurried past bread. "We eat",
he stated, "some four million tons of bread a year. The bread is
better than it was. The oats, rye and barley have gone, and now the
only cereal left is wheat." But as to the other ingredients he pre-
served a discreet silence. How much potato flour is there, for
instance? And how much bran and how little wheat germ-if any?
And of the four million tons of bread consumed annually, how
many thousands of tons of chalk pass through our alimentary
canals with results hitherto undetermined? To these questions,
204 .
so often asked, the Minister and his advisers remain obstinately
silent.
'In a written answer to a recent question the Minister stated
that the addition of calcium to the 85 per cent extraction loaf was
made on the recommendation of the Medical Research Council
and approved by the Chief Medical Officer's Standing Committee
of the Ministry of Health. It is a little difficult to see why the former
body, which was founded for quite different purposes, and none
of whose then members (with one exception) had evinced any
particular interest in dietetics, should have been consulted at all.
But, indeed, the source of the recommendation is well known. It
is one thing to hold and maintain an opinion-that is every
man's right, and often his duty-but to thrust it down the throats
of his fellow citizens, in the form of chalk, against their will, and in
defiance of the findings of such bodies as the Dietetic Committee
of the American Medical Association-argues either a compelling
obsession or an egotism of no ordinary intensity and stature.
'This recommendation was fiercely attacked in the pages of the
medical journals at the time it was adopted and, for our own part,
we have never yet met a doctor who had a good word to say for it.
The defence appears to be that the calcium will do no harm, and
that it may prevent rickets, osteomalacia and dental decay. As to
the harmlessness of calcium, we know that it tends to cause con-
stipation; whether it will produce long-term effects, such as the
arterio-sclerosis and increased incidence of stone formation, pro-
phesied by some, time alone will show. Meantime the experiment
goes forward.
'But that is not our main point. What troubles us is the support
that this mischievous recommendation has given to the enemies of
good nutrition. The curse of our pre-war "can and carton"
domestic economy was denatured food, and the greatest single
offender, our white flour, deprived of the wheat germ and the germ
oil, and "improved" with alum and other dubious chemicals.
Under the tea, white bread and margarine regime, malnutrition
was rife. So, too, were rickets and dental decay, the first until the
role of vitamin D was demonstrated, and the second until the
ante- and post-natal clinics and the school medical and dental
services combined to reduce it to reasonable proportions. But
205
dental decay is common today despite their efforts, despite extra
rations for expectant and nursing mothers and young children,
and despite the chalk; it is rife in the United States, the home of
denatured, phytin-free cereals. Recent work in that country, in
fact, strongly suggests that a deficiency in fluorine plays a cardinal
part in its causation, so much so that a vast experiment is reported
to be under way to verify this hypothesis.
'After the war no doubt we shall return to our peace-time prac-
tices. The merry racket by which the germ is removed from the
wheat and sold to us in chemists' shops as an essential nerve food
at six times its normal price, will begin again; the public, in its
snobbery and ignorance, will demand and receive its white bread,
and the vendors of ready-cooked worthless breakfast cereals will
continue to sell them at a highly satisfactory profit. But now they
have a new weapon. They will be able to say: "Mothers! we are
saving your children from rickets and safeguarding their teeth!"
and if necessary they can quote the Medical Research Council on
their claims. May those who are responsible for this monstrous
perversion of the truth be suitably rewarded.'
From the point of view of the health ~f the people and the health
of our livestock whole-wheat bread is important, and it is especi-
ally interesting to farmers in so far as they ought to be encouraged
here in Britain to produce our own wheat. It has been alleged time
and again that other countries are more suitable to wheat produc-
tion than Britain. I maintain that there is no country in the world
where better wheat can be produced than in England, and if only
we find out the best methods of harvesting, I believe that the special
difficulties and disadvantages of our weather can be overcome.
And overcome they must be; for it must never be said that any
other country can produce better wheat than we can, and certainly
not better wheat than our peculiar climate demands. For I believe
it is one of the provisions of Nature, that each country can grow
food peculiarly suited to sustain life within its own area and, if for
that reason alone, so far as foodstuffs are concerned, be as nearly
as possible self-supporting. Wheat-growing, therefore, must be an
essential part of our industry of farming, and I ask that propa-
ganda against its inclusion from our system of husbandry should
20'6
be stamped out with all the vigour of which we are capable.
In his Farming Memoirs S. G. Kendall says, 'Providing English-
grown wheat is of good quality it is still sought by all first-class
mills, since a little of it gives that excellent flavour which few
foreign-grown wheats can produce.'
I am prepared to go further than this and state with emphasis
that in these days, when every country has been exploited to grow
wheat to export to England at less than the cost of its production,
all that wheat, without exception, is grown on land which has been
reduced to a very low standard of fertility. Deficiency diseases in
wheat crops are reported from all the wheat-producing countries
of the world. These are entirely due to exhaustive cropping and to
the failure, on the part of the farmers, to restore humus to the soil
through animal dung and urine, the ingredients which they have
taken out through heavy and persistent wheat cropping. This,
obviously, must produce a wheat which lacks both flavour and
life-giving properties.
We have had a political and economic policy which demanded
'cheap food' , and we have certainly been provided with 'cheap
food'. Mter all, whether one is a farmer or the maker of rouge and
lipstick, one cannot get anywhere in the world 'ninepence for four-
pence', and 'cheap anything' generally means a commodity which
is both 'nasty' as well as 'cheap'.
It is of the utmost importance, therefore, that wheat-growing,
no matter what kind of international trading policy is eventually
decided upon, should remain one of the staple lines of British
farming husbandry.
As a life-giving force to our people our wheat was second to
none in the world, even when other countries were working for the
first time on their virgin prairies. Many of them have only kept
going with wheat production through the fact that they have
regularly bought much of the seed-wheat they used from this
country. The Salisbury Plain area, where I now live, is world-
famous for the seed-wheat grown here. Every year a large quantity
is exported throughout the world. And yet the amateur economists
would tell us that England is not a wheat-growing country.
This brings me to one of the most important themes of this book
-the Health of our People. There is no other purpose in life more
Q 207
important than that of procreating and building up a virile human
population.
The very unsatisfactory state of my own health when 1 was
twenty-two years old led me into a deeper study of diet than falls
to the lot of those who are blessed and fortified with a constitution
that can eat anything and defy everything. I was not one of them,
and all my life food has had to be a close study with me.
Not until the doctor says, '1 can do nothing for you', does the
average citizen take the slightest interest in the kind of food
he eats, when he eats it, whence it came, or how it was produced.
When, however, he receives a 'death warrant' in the foregoing
terms, he instantly feels, perhaps for the first time, that health is
more important than anything else in the world, and will listen to
the possibilities that food... and quality in food, has something to
do with both good and bad health.
Today, nearly fifty years after my doctors told my father that 1
had but six months more to live, I am grateful to be able to say
that 1 now enjoy a degree of health, a standard of strength, fitness
and endurance as good as anyone could wish to possess.
This has been achieved mainly, and basically, because I have
long ago discovered that of all human foods there is nothing we
consume so important as 'our daily bread'. This should be made
from home-grown wheat, grown on humus-filled land, and milled
so as to preserve the whole-grain which includes the life-giving
germ. A man can eat almost anything and be healthy, provided he
starts the day right with his first meal consisting of:
Health Porridge or Frumenty, and Whole-Grain Bread made
from home-grown wheat.
Home-grown, and humus-grown, wheat contains everything
that the body needs. It is a perfect and complete food. In its
coarsely ground flour it possesses all that is required to secure
perfect peristaltic action and efficient elimination.
Every disease known- from the common cold to cancer-finds
its origin in constipation. A dirty, disease-ridden bowel produces
those toxic conditions out of which all disease originates and
develops. Cure this set of conditions and you must inevitably be
healthy. Whole-grain health porridge and whole-meal bread effec-
tively accomplish this.
208
The eminent medical testimony in this chapter proves how the
whole world is exploited by the misuse of the wheat cereal.
I go even further, and say that if you would really know rude
health, that feeling of fitness every day, with scarcely ever an
experience either of headache or a common cold, and. with a com-
plete indifference to weather, however severe-even when you live
on a mountain-top 829 feet above sea-level and exposed to the
north-east-you can have all this. It can be obtained if only you
will insist on being supplied with a sack of humus-grown wheat
for your household.
Mill your own flour in a small power mill, and grind each supply
of your own home-milled flour, in 4 lb. lots, just as you need it
for your own baking.
Here I would emphasize the use of the whole-wheat grain by
way of a substitute for the ordinary oat porridge-and especially
for the factory-made breakfast cereals in packets, which lazy
housewives put on to the breakfast tables.
Now that restrictions have been removed from the private sale
of wheat, and in view of the fact that literally hundreds of readers
of my books have written asking me for quotations for 'hundred-
weight deliveries' of wheat which can be guaranteed to have been
grown without the aid of 'artificials', we have now organized a
department for the special sale of small parcels of wheat in 1 cwt.
sacks, the price of which is 62s. 6d. delivered to our local depot of
British Road Services. The sacks are free. The British Road Ser-
vices people undertake delivery right to the householder throughout
most of Britain, and carriage costs are not heavy. They vary, of
course, according to distance. Details will be supplied by us (please
enclose a stamped, self-addressed envelope) to anyone interested.
It is important, however, that I should give my views about
bread-making from English wheat generally. While reiterating the
views I have already expressed, I must add that our climate
does not help us by supplying adequate doses of sunshine to ensure
the harvesting of our wheat at that degree of hardness required by
the miller. Taking one season with another, English wheat grinds
with a tendency to forming a glutinous mass, which is difficult to
mill and also difficult to bake into a nice light bread. If English
wheat is to be rendered easily millable it has to be m.i.<c.~d with an.
209
equal weight of best Canadian hard-wheats. In such a blend, the
lovely flavour of Chantry compost-grown wheat can assert itself,
and it will remain as a pleasant memory to the consumer of bread
made from these ingredients.
There is another detail which must be borne in mind. Really
small mills for the home-grinding of small supplies of flour are
hard to come by. I know they do exist, but I have heard only
criticism of their general usefulness and durability. We get over our
own problems in this respect on a large farm like ours at Chantry
by using a mill which is in everyday employment. We cannot
undertake to supply whole-wheat flour, as this brings us into the
milling industry, and entry therein is a complicated undertaking
upon which no busy farmer in his right senses should embark. And
there is another and to my. mind a better way of making full use
of the virtues of Chantry compost-grown wheat: the making of
Frumenty. As few people know much about it, I will describe its
preparation.
FRUMENTY
Take a handful of Chantry wheat, place it in a shallow saucepan,
and cover with water an inch deep. Bring to boil on the cooker,
adding a tiny pinch of salt according to taste. When it has boiled
for a few minutes, cover with lid, place in the slow oven, and leave
all night, when it will cook and swell slowly. At about seven
o'clock in the morning examine, when the contents will exhibit a
swollen but rather dry appearance. Add a little boiling water, stir
with spoon and in a dryish but moist condition, bring to a boil,
replace the pan lid, and put back into the oven. In about an hour's
time the Frumenty is ready for the breakfast table. Add milk,
sugar, honey, maple syrup, or if preferred, milk alone. Here is a
breakfast dish to satisfy the palate of the most fastidious gourmet:
simplicity itself to prepare, and on the score of 'cheapness' no
cereal out of a packet, whether cooked or uncooked, can compare
with it.
What are its claims from a Health standpoint? In the first place
'the whole-wheat berry' is nearer to being a perfect food than any
other. It contains vitamin Bl and vitamin E. It possesses both
210
WHOLE·WHEAT GRAIN (BREAD)
protein and starch. But to be fully beneficial it should be eaten
whole. It should not be mutilated in violent treatment by milling
machinery. It is a living organism and rough handling diminishes
its food values.
By making Frumenty these physical characteristics are pre-
served, and all its virtues can be assimilated.
Vitamin Bl contains aneurin, and this vitamin is often spoken
of as the 'aneurin vitamin'. Food values apart, 'aneurin' has an
asset of paramount importance to the human kind. It is a powerful
solvent which cracks up, dissolves, and clears away the cholesterol
with which the intestinal tract, and the blood-stream generally, has
a tendency with modern diets to become overcharged. The exces-
sive content of cholesterol in the human system is the cause of
that seriously increasing and fatal malady 'coronary thrombosis'.
I am understating fact when I say that no one eating Frumenty
every morning for breakfast is ever likely to die of this complaint.
There is no item of diet which will achieve this desirable end
except 'the whole-wheat berry', nor any way of consuming it so
complete as the making of this simple breakfast dish-Frumenty.
In my opinion, it is superior to wholemeal bread. It overcomes,
too, the spoiling of English wheat by the addition of Canadian. It
disposes of the home-milling problem.
The natural peristaltic effect upon the human bowel is not the
least of the many virtues of eating Frumenty. No other food will
exalt the general health and well-being so much as Frumenty
made from compost-grown wheat.
N.B. The sack in which the wheat is despatched is a specially
open-woven jute, which is ideal for the long-storage of the wheat
berry. No boxes or special bins are required. The sack is much
better than any container. Place the sack on wood, then the wheat
can breathe naturally, and will keep for a long time. One hundred-
weight will last an average family for a year.
While extracts from wheat are sold in tins in large quantities
and at high prices over the chemists' counter; when all this ex-
tracting is, perhaps, far more profit-making than selling the whole-
grain to the consumer, you cannot expect vested interests to yield
easily their profit-making industries to such reorganization as this
chapter shows to be desirable. Vitamins taken with a spoon may
211
WHOLE-WHEAT GRAIN (llREAD)
be convenient and, when a patient is 'down and out', may be use-
ful; but to deprive our most life-giving cereal-wheat-of all its
elementary life-sustaining forces- the wheat germ- for no other
good reason than private profit, is a crime.
Perhaps, some day, when our apathetic population is a little
more exploited for gain, a little more downtrodden and further
deprived of the essentials of life, we may have a revolution against
this monopoly.
Until then, the Ministry of Food will tell you to eat more and
more white bread.
Remember the old Scottish saw:
The whiter your bread,
The sooner you're dead.
212 '
CHAPTER XXI
THE EARTHWORM-MAN'S GREATEST

BENEFACTOR
O
n 1st November 1837, Charles Darwin read a paper
before the Geological Society of London on the forma-
tion of moulds in which it was shown that small fragments
of burnt marl, cinders, etc. which had been thickly strewn over
the surface of several meadows, were found after a few years lying
at the depth of some inches below the turf, but still forming a
layer. This apparent sinking of superficial bodies is due to the
large quantity of fine earth continually brought up to the surface
by worms in the form of castings. These castings are sooner or
later spread out and cover up any object left on the surface.
Charles Darwin was thus led to conclude that all the vegetable
mould all over the country had passed many times through, and
will again pass many times through, the intestinal canals of worms.
Hence the term 'animal mould' would be in some respects more
appropriate than that commonly used term 'vegetable mould'.
Ten years after the publication of Darwin's paper, a Frenchman
named M. D'Archiac, evidently influenced by the doctrines of
Beaumont, wrote about Darwin's theory and described it as the
'singuliere theorie', and objected that it could only apply to 'les
prairies basses et humides'; and that 'les terres labourees, les bois,
les prairies elevees, n'apportent aucune preuve a l'appui de cette
maniere de voir.' But D'Archiac must have thus argued from inner
consciousness and not from observation, for worms abound to an
extraordinary degree in kitchen gardens where the soil is continu-
ally worked, though in such loose soil they generally deposit their
castings in any open cavities or within their old burrows instead of
on the surface of the soil. Hensen estimates that there are about
twice as many worms in gardens as in cornfields. In woods, again,
213
THE EARTHWORM-MAN'S GREATEST BENEFACTOR
if the loose leaves in autumn are removed, the whole surface is
generally found filled with worm casts. Dr. King, Superintendent
of the Botanical Gardens in Calcutta, to whose kindness Darwin
was indebted for many observations on earthworms, informed
Darwin that he found, near Nancy in France, the bottom of the
State forests covered over many acres with a spongy layer, com-
posed of dead leaves and innumerable worm-castings. I write in
the year 1944, which is 107 years after Darwin read his first paper
to the Geological Society in l;.-ondon, but I wonder how many
farmers there are, of the 360,000 farmers in Britain, who have read
Darwin's book on the 'formation of vegetable mould' through the
action of worms, with his observations on the happenings. I wonder
if one in 5,000 of those farmers have read that valuable work, and
yet I doubt very much if there is any contribution to agricultural
literature that is so important to the farmer as these investigations
of Darwin's. For the part which worms have taken in the forma-
tion of the layer of vegetable moulds which covers the whole
surface of the land in every country, is an important one.
'Means by which Worms Excavate their Burrows. This is effected

in two ways; by pushing away the earth on all sides, and by
swallowing it. In the former case, the worm inserts the stretched
out and attenuated anterior extremity of its body into any little
crevice, or hole; and then, as Perrier remarks, the pharynx is
pushed forwards into this part, which consequently swells and
pushes away the earth on all sides. The anterior extremity thus
serves as a wedge. It also serves, as we have before seen, for pre-
hension and suction, and as a tactile organ. A worm was placed
on loose mould, and it buried itself in between two and three
minutes. On another occasion four worms disappeared in fifteen
minutes between the sides of the pot and the earth, which had been
. moderately pressed down. On a third occasion three large worms
and a small one were placed on loose mould well mixed with fine
sand and firmly pressed down, and they all disappeared, except
the tail of one, in thirty-five minutes. On a fourth occasion six
large worms were placed on argillaceous mud mixed with sand
firmly pressed down, and they disappeared, except the extreme
tips of the tails of two of them, in forty minutes. In none of these
214
cases did the worms swallow, as far as could be seen, any earth.
They generally entered the ground close to the sides of the pot.
'A pot was next filled with very fine ferruginous sand, which was
pressed down, well watered, and thus rendered extremely compact.
A large worm left on the surface did not succeed in penetrating it
for some hours, and did not bury itself completely 'until 25 hrs.
40 min. had elapsed. This was effected by the sand being swallowed,
as was evident by the large quantity ejected from the vent, long
before the whole body had disappeared. Castings of a similar
nature continued to be ejected from the burrow during the whole
of the following day.
'As doubts have been expressed by some writers whether worms
ever swallow earth solely for the sake of making their burrows,
some additional cases may be given. A mass of fine reddish sand,
twenty-three inches in thickness, left on the ground for nearly two
years, had been penetrated in many places by worms; and their
castings consisted partly of the reddish sand and partly of black
earth brought up from beneath the mass. This sand had been dug
up from a considerable depth, and was of so poor a nature that
weeds could not grow on it. It is therefore highly improbable that
it should have been swall(, Ned by the worms as food. Again, in a
field near my house the castings frequently consist of almost pure
chalk, which lies at only a little depth beneath the surface; and here
again it is very improbable that the chalk should have been
swallowed for the sake of the very little organic matter which
could have percolated into it from the poor overlying pasture.
Lastly, a casting thrown up through the concrete and decayed
mortar between the tiles, with which the now ruined aisle of
Beaulieu Abbey had formerly been paved, was washed, so that
the coarser matter alone was left. This consisted of grains of
quartz, micaceous slate, other rocks, and bricks or tiles, many of
them from one-twentieth to one-tenth inch in diameter. No one
will suppose that these grains were swallowed as food, yet they
weighed 19 grains, the whole casting having weighed 33 grains.
Whenever a worm burrows to a depth of some feet in undisturbed
compact ground, it must form its passage by swallowing the earth;
for it is incredible that the ground could yield on all sides to the pres-
sure of the pharynx when pushed forwards within the worm's body.
215
'That worms swallow a larger quantity of earth for the sake of ex-
tracting any nutritious matter which it may contain rather than for
making their burrows, appears to me certain. But as this old belief
has been doubted by so high an authority as Claparede, evidence
in its favour must be given in some detail. There is no a priori
improbability in such a belief, for besides other annelids, especially
the Arenicola marina, which throws up such a profusion of cast-
ings on our tidal sands, and which it is believed thus subsists, there
are animals belonging to the most distinct classes, which do not
burrow, but habitually swallow large quantities of sand; namely,
the molluscan Onchidium and many Echinoderms.
'If earth were swallowed only when worms deepened their bur-
rows or made new ones, castings would be thrown up only occa-
sionally; but in many plll:ces fresh castings may be seen every
morning, and the amount of earth ejected from the same burrow
on successive days is large. Yet worms do not burrow to a great
depth, except when the weather is very dry or intensely cold. On
my lawn the black vegetable mould or humus is only about five
inches in thickness, and overlies light-coloured or reddish clayey
soil; now when castings are thrown up in the greatest profusion,
only a small proportion are light coloured, and it is incredible that
the worms should daily make fresh burrows in every direction in
the thin superficial layer of dark-coloured mould, unless they
obtain nutriment of some kind from it. I have observed a strictly
analogous case in a field near my house where bright red clay lay
close beneath the surface. Again on one part of the Downs near
Winchester the vegetable mould overlying the chalk was found to
be only from three to four inches in thickness; and the many cast-
ings here ejected were as black as ink and did not effervesce with
acids; so that the worms must have confined themselves to this
thin superficial layer of mould, of which large quantities were
. daily swallowed. In another place at no great distance the castings
were white; and why the worms should have burrowed into the
chalk in some places and not in others, I am unable to conjecture.
'Two great piles of leaves had been left to decay in my grounds,
and months after their removal, the bare surface, several yards in
diameter, was so thickly covered during several months with cast-
ings that they formed an almost continuous layer; and the large
216
number of worms which lived here must have subsisted during
these months on nutritious matter contained in the black earth ....
'From the several foregoing cases, it can hardly be doubted that
worms swallow earth, not only for the sake of making their bur-
rows, but for obtaining food. Hensen, however, concludes from
his analyses of mould that worms probably could not live on
ordinary vegetable mould, though he admits that they might be
nourished to some extent by leaf-mould. But we have seen that
worms eagerly devour raw meat, fat, and dead worms; and ordin-
ary mould can hardly fail to contain many ova, larvae, and small
living or dead creatures, spores of cryptogamic plants, and micro-
cocci, such as those which give rise to saltpetre. These various
orgarusms, together with some cellulose from any leaves and roots
not utterly decayed, might well account for such large quantities
of mould being swallowed by worms. It may be worth while here
to recall the fact that certain species of Utricularia, which grow in
damp places in the tropics, possess bladders beautifully con-
structed for catching minute subterranean animals; and these
traps would not have been developed unless many small animals
inhabited such soil.
'The Depth to which Worms Penetrate, and the Construction of
their Burrows. Although worms usually live near the surface, yet
they burrow to a considerable depth during long-continued dry
weather and severe cold. In Scandinavia, according to Eisen, and
in Scotland, according to Mr. Lindsay Carnegie, the burrows run
down to a depth of from 7 to 8 feet; in northern Germany, accord-
ing to Hoffmeister, from 6 to 8 feet, but Hensen says from 3 to 6
feet. This latter observer has seen worms frozen at a depth of
1t feet beneath the surface. I have not myself had many oppor-
tunities for observation, but I have often met with worms at depths
of 3 to 4 feet. In a bed of fine sand overlying the chalk, which had
never been disturbed, a worm was cut into two at 55 inches, and
another was found here at Down in December at the bottom of
its burrow, at 61 inches beneath the surface. Lastly, in earth near
an old Roman villa, which had not been disturbed for many
centuries, a worm was met with at a depth of 66 inches; and this
was in the middle of August.
'The burrows run down perpendicularly, or more commonly a
217
Httle obliquely. They are said sometimes to branch, but as far as I
have seen this does not occur, except in recently dug ground and
near the surface. They are generally, or as I believe invariably,
lined with a thin layer of fine, dark-coloured earth voided by the
worms; so that they must at first be made a little wider than their
ultimate diameter. I have seen several burrows in undisturbed sand
thus lined at a depth of 4 ft. 6 in.; and others close to the surface
thus lined in recently dug ground. The walls of fresh burrows are
often dotted with little globular pellets of voided earth, still soft
and viscid; and these, as it appears, are spread out on all sides by
the worm as it travels up or down its burrow. The lining thus
formed becomes very compact and smooth when nearly dry, and
closely fits the worm's body. The minute reflexed bristles which
project in rows on all sictes from the body, thus have excellent
points of support; and the burrow is rendered well adapted for
the rapid movement of the animal. The lining appears also to
strengthen the walls, and perhaps saves the worm's body from
being scratched. I think so because several burrows which passed
through a layer of sifted coal-cinders, spread over turf to a thick-
ness of 1t inches, had been thus lined to an unusual thickness. In
this case the worms, judging from the castings, had pushed the
cinders away on all sides and had not swallowed any of them. In
another place, burrows similarly lined, passed through a layer of
coarse coal-cinders 3t inches in thickness. We thus see that the
burrows are not mere excavations, but may rather be compared
with tunnels lined with cement. . ..
'A worm after swallowing earth, whether for making its burrow
or for food, soon comes to the surface to empty its body. The
ejected earth is thoroughly mingled with the intestinal secretions,
and is thus rendered viscid. After being dried it sets hard. I have
watched worms during the act of ejection, and when the earth was
, in a very liquid state it was ejected in little spurts, and by a slow
peristaltic movement when not so liquid. It is not cast indifferently
on any side, but with some care, first on one and then on another
side; the tail being used almost like a trowel. When a worm comes
to the surface to eject earth, the tail protrudes, but when it collects
leaves its head must protrude. Worms therefore must have the
power of turning round in their closely fitting burrows; and this,
218
as it appears to us, would be a difficult feat. As soon as a little
heap has been formed, the worm apparently avoids, for the sake of
safety, protruding its tail; and the earthy matter is forced up
through the previously deposited soft mass. . . .
'Worms do not always eject their castings on the s,urface of the
ground. When they can find any cavity, as when burrowing in
newly turned-up earth, or between the stems of banked-up plants,
they deposit their castings in such places. So again any hollow
beneath a large stone lying on the surface of the ground is soon
filled up with their castings . . ..
'It is certain that old burrows collapse in the course of time; for
the fine earth voided by worms, if spread out uniformly, would
form in many places in the course of a year a layer one-fifth of an
inch in thickness; so that at any rate this large amount is not
deposited within the old unused burrows. If the burrows did not
collapse, the whole ground would be first thickly riddled with holes
to a depth of about ten inches, and in fifty years a hollow un-
supported space, ten inches in depth, would be left. The holes left
by the decay of successively formed roots of trees and plants must
likewise collapse in the course of time.'
The study of Darwin's investigation into the habits of the earth-
worm leads one to the conclusion that he proved that the amount
of earth brought up by worms every year throughout the ages is
enormous, and one is compelled to admit that the earth's covering
of mould has largely been put there, in its present form, in the
course of countless centuries by the activities of this perfectly
wonderful little animal.
I can imagine the average farmer, reading these words for the
first time and perhaps not having given much thought to the work
which the earthworm performs on the farm, may say, 'Well, this
is very interesting, I wonder when we shall know exactly how many
worms we ought to have to the acre in order to make certain that
all this manufacturing by the worm is going on to maximum
capacity.'
Sir Albert Howard puts the matter in a very practical way when
he says that if you take an ordinary garden spade and dig with it
and if one or two healthy, pink, active worms come up with every
spadeful of earth, you can assume that all is well with the land,
219
and that the quality and quantity of the next season's crops is
assured; but if the worms are few or if they are coiled up in balls,
or pale in colour and sluggish in their movements, then Sir Albert
says, the next crop will be poor, and trouble with pests will almost
certainly be inevitable. In Britain, old and experienced gardeners
pay great attention to the earthworms and often make their manur-
ing largely on the indications they furnish. In return for what the
earthworms do for the gardener, all that is needed is to supply
these animals with the right kind of food and to avoid the use of
unnatural nourishment. Earthworms thrive on farmyard manure,
or better still on compost, manufactured from vegetable and ani-
mal waste. On a diet of artificial manure and poison sprays they
either perish outright or abandon the garden and farm to their
fate.
Sir Albert tells us that a few years ago in south Lincolnshire,
while investigating the root developments of a crop of potatoes he
noticed that the fine roots of the potato plant in passing down-
wards into the subsoil always made full use of the tunnels that
were created and made by the earthworm. In these galleries fresh
worm casts were constantly being deposited. Whenever the fine
roots passed one of these deposits it at once formed a web-like
network of new roots which closely invested the cast and pene-
trated it in all directions. Then the root continued its downward
passage into the subsoil. Obviously the potato was receiving some-
thing from the cast, or this network of new roots would not have
been developed.
Feeding the crop is not the last service performed by the earth-
worm, they are the ideal soil analyst, and furnish the gardener and
the farmer with a report on the state of his land. All that is neces-
sary is for the gardener or farmer himself to make a rough count
of the earthworms in the top spit of soil and to notice their colour,
. their general condition and, above all, their liveliness.
According to a large number of experiments and observations
which Darwin made, it would appear that the tonnage of earth-
worm casts to the acre would vary from eight to sixteen tons per
acre per annum.
How much do we owe to the earthworm?
If, as a practical farmer, I was asked to set out the scientific and
220
practical deduction that I learned from my own study of the
activity of the worm and from what Darwin and other scientists
have told us, I would say this: The worm provides me with all the
mineral content of my soil that I can possibly need. He provides
me with no end of subsoiling and underground drai.nage needed
for water and for other purposes connected with the growth of the
plants. He creates a system for the circulation of oxygen without
which the soil cannot be healthy or even live. He keeps down the
population of the malignant anaerobic bacteria, and of pests such
as wireworm and leather-jacket, all enemies of my plants.
Perhaps more important than all he is a conditioner of all the
mineral requirements of my soil-he is Soil Conditioner No. 1-
concentrating them and bringing them to the surface where I need
them most; these include the essential ingredients-phosphates,
potash, nitrogen and lime- and the trace elements as well.
Since the earthworm provides me with all these it is my duty to
carry on such a system of husbandry and refertilization as will
encourage him to live and multiply in increasing numbers; to make
his activities more and more lively. Any act of farming which
threatens the life of the earthworm is one of which I ought not to
be guilty.
In other words, the one thing that I must do with my soil is to
keep it a living entity- to see that it is frequently and adequately
cultivated; to secure that it is fed with living organic matter, so
that the earthworm can live and do his part, and the rest of Nature
can perform hers.
Without the earthworm, I, as a farmer, believe that I cannot
live. And I am not referring to my lifetime only, for I am simply an
occupier for the period of my life only of the land which I farm.
At the end of my time of occupation, I have to hand this heritage
over to my successors, and it is my duty to see that the land is in
better condition than when I assumed my tenancy. To give Darwin
the final word, he says the plough is one of the most ancient and
most valuable of man's inventions and that long before he existed
the land was, in fact, regularly ploughed by earthworms. It may
be doubted whether there are any other animals that have played
so important a part in the history of the world as these low-
organized creatures.
221
A visit to almost any orchard in Kent during the spring im-
mediately after the trees are sprayed with tar oils or lime sulphur
will be sufficient to prove how harmful this spraying is to the earth-
worm population. The ground soon afterwards is covered with a
carpet of dead worms.
It is in the United States of America that Darwin's studies of the
earthworm have of recent years attracted most attention, and have
also been carried further in a number of useful directions. The
reader interested in these developments should begin with the
work of Dr. Oliver who, in 1937, published Our Friend the Earth-
worm, which contains a detailed account of his studies. Starting
life as a doctor, quite by chance he read Darwin's account of the
work of the earthworm and at once began to investigate the rela-
tion of these animals to crop production. Soon he obtained evi-
dence which fully confirmed Darwin's findings. Thus was started
a series of experiments on the culture of earthworms, on the pro-
duction of new types of hybridization, and the distribution of egg
capsules for the purpose of restocking and improving derelict land
almost devoid of these creatures. His success was immediate and
in two years he sold his medical practice and set up as a landscape
engineer, his main work being to improve private estates and
public parks. By 1920 he had become independent and was able
to move to Los Angeles, where he pursued his investigations on a
ten-acre experimental farm. In 1937 he published his results in the
above-mentioned work of three volumes, which has helped hun-
dreds of farmers all over the United States to restore fertility to
barren land where the earthworm population had been destroyed
by artificial manures and poison sprays.
One factor in Oliver's career must be emphasized. His mind was
prepared for the message contained in Vegetable Mould and Earth-
worms by his early connection with farming, a detailed account
of which will be found in the issue of Organic Gardening (The
, Rodale Press, Emmaus, Pa., U.S.A.) of June 1943. As a small boy,
he went to live with his grandfather in Huron County, Ohio, on a
160-acre family holding which had been farmed continuously for
sixty years on organic lines. This farm was divided into four blocks
of forty acres, one of which was taken up by the homestead, gar-
den, orchard, and park, the other three blocks being used for mixed
222
farming. In the centre of the whole 160 acres was the farmyard of
two acres, which communicated directly with each of the four
forty-acre blocks by large swinging gates. In the centre of the
farmyard, in which the livestock were kept during the winter, was
the compost pit, 50 feet wide and 100 feet long, which had been
excavated to a depth of 2 feet. Down the middle line ,of this com-
post pit about 20 feet from each end were two heavy posts about
12 feet high, each connected with the barn by a cable furnished
with large travelling baskets, by which the manure from the great
barn was transported each morning to the compost pit, where it
was evenly spread. When necessary the contents of the compost
pit could be flooded by gravity flow from a neighbouring stream,
which also supplied the drinking troughs of the livestock. The
heart of this farm, on which crop failures were unknown, was
the compost pit and its vast earthworm population of several
millions.
An essential item of the daily work of the farm was the care of
this compost pit. Every morning the barn was cleared of the drop-
pings of the livestock, which were evenly spread, together with all
the available soiled litter, on the compost heap. When about a foot
deep, several tons of red clay from the floor of a pond were dis-
tributed all over the compost pit. In this way the vast earthworm
population was supplied with organic and mineral food. Mter the
spring thaw, the upper layer of the compost pit was removed and
the rich dark crumbling layer of sweet-smelling worm casts was
removed by shovels into wagons and spread on the fields just in
front of the ploughs. Thus an effective addition to the food
materials needed by the new crop, as well as a copious supply of
earthworms and egg capsules, was given to the land. Care was
always taken to leave behind in the compost pit an adequate supply
of earthworm castings, which acted as a 'mother substance' for the
composting of the surplus top material when that was returned to
the pit and composting was restarted.
This early experience naturally influenced Oliver in his later
work. He had observed in his boyhood that earthworms will
thrive and that a concentration of many thousands to the cubic
yard is possible, provided a suitable environment, sufficient
moisture, and above all ample food are supplied.
R 223
On this Ohio farm a regular rotation was practised-two straw
crops (wheat and maize)-followed by a temporary ley of mixed
timothy and clover. Every year some forty acres of this ley were
turned under. These areas always contained an unbelievable
earthworm population.
A further detail must be mentioned. Four acres were in orchard,
while other fruit trees were planted in the hedgerows. Oliver's
grandfather never allowed these trees to be cultivated. His motto
was: 'Never disturb the soil under a tree. The earthworms are the
best people for taking care of a tree and I don't want them dis-
turbed.'
Oliver concludes the autobiographical fragment, from which the
above account of his grandfather's farm is taken, with the follow-
ing words:
'In this example of my-grandfather's earthworm farm, we have
the technique of utilizing the earthworm in general farming
operations either on a large or on a small scale. From my experi-
ence as a small boy growing up on this farm with much friendly
and loving instruction from my grandfather on the subject of
earthworms, and in my own work covering a period of more than
forty years, I am fully convinced that the eventual salvation of the
soil of our country will include the harnessing of the earthworm as
one of the major measures. And from my experience I know that
the soil can be made to produce several times as much food as the
present average through the proper harnessing and utilization of
the earthworm under control.'
The preceding paragraph will help to explain the origin of the
present-day interest in the place of the earthworm in farming,
which is rapidly growing in the United States of America and
which is re-enforcing the campaign against artificial manures and
poison sprays.
There is a growing volume of evidence from all over the world
that agriculture took the wrong road when artificial manures were
introduced to stimulate crop production and when poison sprays
became common to check insect and fungous pests. Both these
agencies destroy the earthworm and thus deprive the farmer of an
important member of his unpaid labour force. There is also a
strong case for believing that one of the roots of present-day
2~4
THE EARTHWORM--MAN'S GREATEST BENEFACTOR
disease in crops, livestoc:k, and mankind can be traced to an im-
poverished soil and that these troubles are aggravated by the use
of chemical manures.
225
APPENDIX I

by JORIAN E. F. JENKS, Editorial Secretary
n this book, which constitutes a notable addition to the litera-
I ture of the organic movement, Mr. Friend Sykes has made a

number of references to the Soil Association, of which he was
one of the founders. He- has therefore suggested that I should
contribute, on behalf of the association, a short account of its
origin, work and aims-a suggestion to which I gladly accede.
The Soil Association was founded soon after the close of 1939-
45 war, being formally inaugurated, after much careful forethought,
in May, 1946. It was designed to co-ordinate several new lines of
thought and chains of evidence which had been attracting a good
deal of attention among thoughtful people and which all appeared
to lead in the same direction-towards a positive concept of
health based, through wholesome nutrition, on biologically fertile
soil.
Outstanding among this foundation material were the researches
of Sir Albert Howard and Sir Robert McCarrison in India; the
testimony of Dr. Lionel Picton and the panel doctors of Cheshire,
and of Dr. J. W. Scharff, formerly Chief Medical Officer of
Singapore, as to the validity of Howard's and McCarrison's
theses; the new approach of health evolved by Drs. Scott William-
son and Innes Pearse as a result of their work at the Pioneer
Health Centre (peckham); and the practical demonstrations of
organic husbandry provided by Mr. Friend Sykes of Wiltshire,
Capt. R. G. M. Wilson of Lincolnshire and other farmers.
All this evidence, and much more besides, had already been
assembled, sifted and collated by Lady Eve Balfour in her book,
The Living Soil (Fabers, 1943). The widespread interest aroused by
226
APPENDIX I
this book, and the obvious importance of the experimental work
begun at Haughley in 1940 by Lady Eve and the late Miss Alice
Debenham, provided ample justification for the founding of the
Soil Association.
Prominent among the founders of the Association were Lady
Eve Balfour, Lord Sempill, Lord Teviot, the Earl of Portsmouth,
Mr. F. C. R. Douglas (now Lord Douglas of BarIoch), Mr. F. C.
Scott, Dr. Scott Williamson, Dr. Innes Pearse, Dr. M. C. Rayner,
Sir Cecil Oakes, Mr. Henry Deck, Mr. Laurence Easterbrook,
Mr. Friend Sykes, Capt. R. G. M. Wilson and many other distin-
guished persons. From the very outset there were strong links with
similar movements overseas, for instance with New Zealand
through Dr. Guy Chapman and with Australia through Col. Sir
Stanton Hicks.
The objects of the association were formulated in the following
terms:
1. To bring together all those working for a fuller under-
standing of the vital relationships between soil, plant, animal and
man.
2. To initiate, co-ordinate and assist research in this field.
3. To collect and distribute the knowledge gained so as to
create a body of informed public opinion.
These objects, after full discussion with all those interested, were
amplified as follows in a leaflet issued by the Association in 1947.
'The Soil Association was founded by a group of people,
from many different walks of life, who believe that the right
approach to a better understanding of health is the positive
one of promoting vitality rather than the negative one of
curing disease.
'To promote vitality, we must understand its origin. Our
bodies are built out of the food we eat and, directly or in-
directly, that food comes from the soil. Science has taught us
that even a single spoonful of soil contains millions of living
creatures which thrive among the naturally decaying residues
of plants and animals and in their turn support and nourish
new growth.
'As soon as it is realized that the soil itself is a segment of
the cycle of life, the fundamental importance of maintaining
227
APPENDIX I
its vitality becomes apparent. Health is seen as wholeness and
nutrition as a continuous flow of substances from the soil and
back to the soil. This is what is meant by the law of return.
There is reason to believe that the interruption of this cycle at
any point leads, slowly but surely, to disease in plant, animal
and man, and in body, mind and spirit. This we seek to in-
vestigate through the science of ecology, which is the study of
the relationship of living things with each other and with
their environment. Scientists have discovered a great deal
about the physics and chemistry of the soil, but it is mainly to
a few pioneers in organic cultivation that we owe the com-
paratively little that has yet been learned about soil ecology.
The Soil Association believes that it has an important contri-
bution to make in this vital field of knowledge.
'The Soil Association is unique in conception and purpose
because it is bringing together a great variety of men and
women ranging from the trained scientist, investigating the
relationship between the soil and vitality, to the ordinary
citizen who sees in the organic attitude of mind a clue to
health and a full life. It has therefore a wide task. On the one
hand it must do all it can to foster serious research .... On
the other hand it must spread knowledge of these matters.
This it is doing by acting as a clearing-house for information,
by organizing demonstrations, making and displaying films
and publishing regular reports, as well as an illustrated
quarterly journal, containing authoritative articles from all
parts of the world, and in which members' experiments are
recorded and their results made known.
'In these, as in all other aspects of its work, the Association
endeavours to adopt a positive and constructive approach. Its
aim is to increase our stock of knowledge, not to dissipate
energy in controversy. Great interest has already been
aroused in its work not only in Great Britain but all over the
world. The scope of its work is limited only by the size of its
membership.
'The Soil Association welcomes as members all who accept
its general principles and will help to achieve its objects. Since
it was formally registered in May 1946, there has been a
228
APPENDIX I
steady influx from nearly every section of the community.
Farmers, gardeners, doctors, dentists, scientists, housewives
and members of over fifty other professions are represented
in its membership.'
These words are as true of the Association today as they were
when written.
The management of the Association, as provided ill its articles
of association, is vested in a Council nominated from and elected
by members, by means of a postal ballot. It comprises not less than
20 or more than 30 members (including the officers of the Asso-
ciation), one quarter of whom retire each year but are eligible for
re-election. Its Chairman is the President of the Association, the
Earl of Bradford (formerly Viscount Newport). There is also a
panel of members, appointed by the Council by reason of their
specialized knowledge, who serve in an advisory capacity.
Membership of the Association is open to all who declare their
adherence to its objects and pay the minimum annual subscription
of 30s. or $5. This rate of subscription has never been increased,
despite the marked decline in the value of money since 1946. The
Association has, however, found it necessary, in order to meet its
every-growing commitments, to institute a 'full, active' member-
ship at the rate of £3 or $10 per annum. This higher rate is payable
voluntarily, but in fact a high proportion of members pay it. Many
also make annual donations for special projects and for the
financing of the Haughley research, to which reference is made in
another appendix. Provision is made for corporate membership,
as in the case of an Allotment Society or Young Farmers' Club.
A certain number of institutions receive the quarterly journal,
Mother Earth, without being members.
Being a non-profit-making organization for education and re-
search, the Association is registered as a charity and is therefore
exempt for company taxation. Since, moreover, the experimental
work at Haughley is recognized by the Agricultural Research
Council, donations and subscriptions earmarked for this work may
be deducted as an expense from the computation of profits for
taxation purposes by individuals and firms engaged in a trade to
which this research is relevant.
Ever since the inception of the Association, its membership has
229
APPENDIX I
shown a persistent increase, despite the absence of any publicity
directed to this end. It now (1958) stands at over 4,000, of whom
approximately one-quarter are resident in countries other than
Britain. This is a remarkable achievement for an organization
which has little to offer its members except the privilege of
participating in the enlargement and propagation of knowledge.
Further increases in membership and in financial support are
nevertheless urgently required, since the Association receives no
official subsidy, nor is it sponsored by any industrial or com-
mercial enterprise. It is an entirely independent body, raising its
revenue by its own efforts and on the strength of its own merits.
That these merits are now widely recognized is evidenced by the
increasing interest being shown in its research work by those
associated with more orthodox institutions, and by the growing
number of requests it receives for advice. Each year sees that
'increase in our stock of knowledge' which has already been
quoted as one of its primary aims, while the amount of 'energy
dissipated in controversy' is progressively diminishing. In view of
the revolutionary character of its approach to agriculture and
nutrition, and of the forthright way in which it has criticized many
modern practices, this growing measure of recognition testifies to
the soundness of the principles for which it stands.
Finally, it may be observed that the Association, though founded
and registered in Britain, is essentially international in outlook. It
receives a constant stream of visitors and inquiries from other
lands. Its overseas membership covers 28 different countries, and
the number is growing every year. Many of these members also
belong to kindred bodies in their own country, and with these the
Association maintains close and friendly contact; in some cases
there is formal affiliation. These kindred bodies are to be found in
the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Mrica,
Argentina, Germany, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands and
Sweden, and their numbers, too, are expanding. For everywhere
there is a growing recognition of the urgent need to conserve
natural resources, to increase the organic fertility of the land, and
to provide the human race with more wholesome food of higher
nutritional value as the first and biggest step towards higher
standards of health.
230
APPENDIX I
All those who are concerned about these important matters, and
have been interested in Mr. Friend Sykes's book, are cordially
invited to make contact with the Soil Association through its
London office at 8F Hyde Park Mansion, Marylebone Road,
London N.W.1, or its registered office at New Bells Farm,
Haugbley, Stowmarket, Suffolk (Tel. Haugbley (Suffolk) 35).
JORIAN JENKS
231
APPENDIX II
A RESUME OF THE SCIENTIFIC WORK

ARISING FROM THE
HAUGHLEY EXPERIMENT SINCE 1952
by Dr. R. F. MILTON
T he Haughley Experiment had already been under way for

several years when I was asked to participate in the research
work. I was already acquainted with the size and scope of
the experiment, having been on the advisory panel of experts for a
short period previously.
I was, therefore, well aware at the time of a criticism that the
experiment could not possibly produce conclusive results in that it
was not susceptible to statistical treatment, but my experience in
the wider biological field had taught me also the limitations of the
statistical approach. The statistical formula is valid only if the
number of variables is known and limited, and in any experiment
involving a biological organism the variables can never be assessed
-let alone controlled. In most other agricultural research stations,
replicated plot experiments are carried out and the results statistic-
ally treated. Such results may give valuable information, but appli-
cation of the results outside the li.mitations of the plot experiment
may be quite unjustified, and only too often such is the case.
OBJECTS OF THE EXPERIMENT

Now the Haugbley Experiment is concerned with differing
methods of farm management and it involves the complicated
interplay and balance between soil, crop and animal. The limits
are boundless and cannot be anticipated or controlled. The experi-
ment, therefore, is to be considered as a pioneer or proving venture
which may reveal effects upon soil, plant and animal that could
never have been obtained by plot or controlled agricultural experi-
232
APPENDIX II
ment. Such information would be of fundamental value in indi-
cating:
1. How further agricultural research should be organized, and
2. What pitfalls might be expected in the ad hoc application
of plot experimental results to the unpredictable daily
requirements of farming.
In this respect the Haughley Experiment is unique arid is certainly
worthwhile. Its fundamental object is to study contrasted systems
of land use
(a) over a period of many years, so that continuity is secured;
(b) over successive generations of plants and animals nur-
tured in the same way, so that cumulative effects may have
full play;
(c) on a regular rotational basis and on a field scale, so that
all other conditions may be those of ordinary farming
practice;
(d) on areas of land as nearly as possible comparable as re-
gards soil types, drainage and other basic factors, including
management.
So far as we have been able to discover, there does not exist any-
where in the world another experiment on these lines. No research
station in this country is comparing two nearly identical dairy
herds on nearly identical farms. Plot experiments cannot achieve
this object, and only by carrying out the experiment on a farming
scale can any comparisons be justifiable.
The smallest complete unit which a biologist will study as a
going concern is that which can reproduce and maintain itself.
The small part of an acre plot is never operated as a complete farm,
but only as a detached fragment. As the variables have been re-
duced so it has become incapable of representing the whole farm,
and results thus obtained become unacceptable when applied to
the whole. The works chemist knows well that the test-tube results
in the laboratory cannot safely be used for exact calculation in
working plants on full production scale. If that is true with inor-
ganic materials, how much more true is it with the inter-connected
and inter-dependent organisms of all sizes involved in farming
operations. The only scale on which to study dairy farming is full-
scale dairy farming. That is what is being done at Haughley.
233
APPENDIX II
THE THREE FARMS

At Haughley there are three farms working side by side, but
using different farming systems. The first is a 32-acre unit worked
as a small stockless farm, having no animals and only inorganic
fertilizers supplemented with green manuring. It is worked on a
five-course rotation, viz. wheat, sugar beet, barley, barley, green
crop fallow. All cereal crops are under sown with trefoil for plough-
ing back, and all seed is produced on the unit with the exception of
sugar beet and trefoil.
The other two are both 75-acre units and both follow an eight-
course rotation, including four-year leys and the use of lucerne.
Each also produces its own seed grain and supports the same head
of livestock entirely froJ;ll its own produce- no bought feeding-
stuffs being used. The most important item of livestock on each
is a herd of Guernsey cattle, but poultry, pigs and horses are also
kept.
The first of these two units is worked as an organic farm. Deep-
rooting herbs are used in the composition of the leys; all the farm-
yard manure is made into compost, and mineral supplements for
livestock are given in the form of dried seaweed. No fertilizers or
compost-making materials are imported. Thus the soil receives-
whether as crop residues or manure-only those waste products
which the unit itself produces.
The other unit of 75 acres (usually called the Mixed section) is
similar to the organic unit except that orthodox ley mixtures are
used; mineral supplements to livestock are given in the usual form
of mineral licks; the farmyard manure is not composted, but is
applied sometimes direct and sometimes after rotting in a hill, and
the return of the waste products of the unit is supplemented with
the regular use of the usual range of fertilizers in the normally
accepted quantities for the district.
The arrangement of these sections was very carefully made so
that any slight differences in soil type are equally represented in all
three.
Within this framework then, it became necessary to elaborate
an investigational programme designed to obtain maximum in-
234
APPENDIX II
formation concerning relationships between soil, plant and ani-
mal. To this end, monthly soil samples have been taken for exam-
ination of levels of available minerals and other recognized indi-
cations of 'fertility'. In addition, annual analysis of crops for
nutritional value, mineral and vitamin content has been made.
Regular analysis of milk and eggs has also been carried out. This
allows of comparison of analyses of components on the three
sections and should indicate trends due to farming differences. The
work has been submitted in the form of yearly reports, summaries
of which have appeared in Mother Earth, the Journal of the Soil
Association. In the seven-year period, some 30,000 separate
analyses will have been made; and many very interesting features
have emerged.
In addition to analytical work, careful watch has been made for
any apparent changes in the incidence of disease in the crops or in
the health and fertility of the animals.
It should be stated most clearly that this period has been a
building-up stage, and that until a complete rotation has been
passed results must be considered as very tentative. During this
period there has been an accumulating effect of fertilizer additions
to the soil, while all the fields on the Mixed and Organic sections
will (by the end of the rotation period) have received a quota of
organic matter, and a period of grazing with both cattle and
poultry. During this period also, the herds and flocks will have
been built up.
The two Guernsey herds (on the Mixed and Organic sections),
were established by the purchase from established Guernsey
breeders of a few pairs of bulling heifers, each pair by the same
sire and out of dams of similar line-breeding and records. On
arrival, one of each pair was allotted to each herd. The same bull
is used in both dairy herds.
Each of the Organic and Mixed sections has some permanent
pasture (about 6 acres), and eleven arable fields. The same eight-
year rotation is followed in each: four years in temporary leys,
followed by four arable crops, viz. oats, barley, peas and beans,
wheat undersown to ley. At anyone time, three fields on each
section are also under lucerne and about three acres under root
crops. On both sections all hay is tripoded and all heifer calves
235
APPENDIX II
suckle-reared. Being fed entirely from the produce of their own
unit, neither herd is forced. Except for the seaweed and mineral
licks already mentioned, and a small quantity of fishmeal for the
poultry, no feeding-stuff of any kind is bought for either section.
The only seed purchased on these two sections is the ley mixture
(for one field each year), lucerne, and roots for two acres. At
present, the livestock maintained by each section is 25 to 30 head
of cattle (all ages), 250 head of laying hens plus young stock, and
two breeding sows. Two horses are fed from the two sections. The
herds are being carefully culled to keep the higher-yielding stock,
the aim being an average of about 900 gallons per lactation.
SOIL SAMPLING AND ANALYTICAL METHODS

The research system has involved the monthly analysis of soil
from all fields on the three sections. Preliminary results indicated
that the best sampling procedure for comparative work was to take
samples at five-yard intervals diagonally across the fields-always
following the same path. The samples were then bulked, sieved and
quartered in the usual manner after air drying. Replicated samples
taken in this fashion gave comparable results, more representa-
tive of the field as a whole than was obtained by the square plot
sampling system. The procedure followed was to take a sample
between three and six inches from the surface. In the case of leys,
the sample was taken below the turf at about six inches.
The analytical work has in the main employed methods regu-
larly used in other laboratories. But in a number of cases experi-
ence has led to the development of more advanced techniques,
better suited to the elucidation of the matters under investigation.
These have been described from time to time in scientific journals,
and have aroused some interest. This aspect of the work is set out
in the annual reports which have been submitted to the Council
of the Soil Association.
RESULTS OBTAINED TO DATE: (1) SOIL CHANGES

Soil Structure
It has not been possible to date to make a comparative assess-
236
APPENDIX II
ment in scientific terms of any variations in soil structure on the
sections which could be attributed to the differing methods of
management. Superficial, but regular, observation over the past
years suggests that the soil on the stockless fields is losing struc-
ture; it has a tendency to waterlog after rain, to become dusty
following drought, and to pan. But these observations are as yet
not capable of accurate assessment.
Water-Holding Capacity
Measurements have given results which show correlation of this
property with the 'humus' content of the soil. It seems clear that
high humus content is associated with enhanced water-holding
capacity, which would suggest the greater ability of high humus
soils to retain water in drought periods. With low humus soils
a tendency to flooding would be expected when rainfall was
excessive. Fields on the Stockless section with humus of 2·5 per
cent will retain only 45 per cent of moisture, whereas fields on the
Organic section with 6 per cent of humus will retain 70 per cent of
water.
pH (Degree of Acidity or Alkalinity)

Variations in soil pH occur on all fields on all sections. On some
fields in the Organic section pH has approached 9, a figure indicat-
ing high alkalinity. In general, the summer figures are higher than
those obtained in winter. Largest variations are found on fields
with high humus content. The generally accepted view that trace
element and phosphate deficiencies in plants occur in soil with
pH in the region of 9 is not borne out by the crop analyses, which
show no marked deficiency in these respects.
Humus Content (Loss on ignition)

The results of analysis for humus content on all fields indicate
fruitful possibilities for research. Although minor variations in
the levels occur from month to month, the general tendency is for
results to be consistent. Certain fields near to the buildings, which
formerly had been permanent pastures for many years, were in-
cluded in all three sections. Those forming part of the Organic
section now show levels of the order of 6 per cent. By contrast,
237
APPENDIX II
some of the old arable fields on the Stockless section have levels of
the order of 2·2 per cent. Average figures for the fields from the
three sections indicate that humus content is tending to rise on the
Organic section, is markedly lower on the Mixed section despite
the fact that this section receives the same bulk: of plant and animal
residues as the Organic section, and is falling steadily on the Stock-
less section. This is indicated by the accompanying table showing
the average results for the sections for the first three years.
YEAR ORGANIC MIXED STOCKLESS
per cent per cent per cent
1953 3·1 2·8 2·7
1954 3·3 2·7 2·5
1955 3·5 2·9 2·45
In years subsequent to 1955 the method for humus analysis was
modified and the subsequent figures cannot be directly compared.
The later figures are calculated on the basis of total carbon found.
The same trend in the comparison of the results is seen, i.e. the
Organic fields continue to show an upgrading in humus levels,
and the Stockless fields indicate a gradual, progressive diminution.
The findings on the Mixed section are varied, some fields indicate
an increase in humus, others show a falling-away. This finding of
rising humus on certain of the Organic fields is correlated with a
good tilth, and the diminishing figures on the Stockless fields cor-
related with a degrading in soil structure and some enhanced
panning.
Citric Soluble Phosphate

For seven successive years we have found marked variations
from month to month in citric soluble phosphate levels. On the
Stockless section the variations are irregular and, apart from a
generalized rise in November and December on those fields which
have been subjected to fertilizer treatment in the autumn, no
general pattern is observed. With fields on the Mixed and Organic
sections generally, a peak was apparent in the later summer months.
This is the general pattern of rise and fall; it suggests a correlation
between enhanced biological activity in the soil and most rapid
plant growth.
APPENDIX II
We have confirmed the observation that the largest fluctuations
occur in fields with highest humus content, particularly if growing
arable crops. There appears to be some co-ordination between the
humus content of the soil and the peak in variation-particularly
when the fields are under arable crops-thus, in some Organic
fields with high humus content, available phosphate h~s risen from
about 10 mg/IOO gm in January to 60 mg/IOO gm in the summer,
and fallen to the 10 mg level again in the winter months. Similar
rises and falls are not so apparent on the Mixed and Stockless
fields. The variation in levels of citrate soluble phosphate is not
nearly so obvious on fields under ley, and it may be that the growth
rate is much more regular througbout the year in grasses than with
arable crops.
Citric Soluble Potash

Monthly variations in potash levels in the soil are a characteris-
tic feature. By and large, the variations follow the pattern described
above for citric soluble phosphate. Greatest variations occur in
fields with highest humus and the peaks are in the growing months.
Least variations are in fields under leys and are greatest with arable
crops. Some fields on the Stockless section show high levels in the
winter as expected (following addition of fertilizer), and fairly low
results in spring and summer.
Nitrate
Variations in nitrate levels are also found in the monthly soil
samples. The pattern is not dissimilar to that shown by phosphate
and potash. Incubation of the soils has shown that remarkable
increases in nitrate concentration will result, and again there
appears to be a correlation between humus content and potential
nitrate production.
We have found that the addition of nitrogenous fertilizers does
not seem to cause any appreciable increase in the levels of available
nitrate-or for that matter, in total nitrogen. The highest levels of
all nitrogen components occur on those fields on the Organic
section which, as far as we know, have never received any comple-
ment of inorganic nitrogenous fertilizer. Equally, the lowest nitro-
s 239
APPENDIX II
gen levels are found on those fields on the Stockless section which
have received regular dressings of nitrogenous fertilizer since the
Experiment was initiated. The conclusion appears inescapable,
that atmospheric nitrogen fixation occurs on the high-humus,
Organic fields, and is lowest on the Stockless land to which most
artificial nitrogen is applied.
A vailable Sodium
For the past three years regular tests have been carried out for
available sodium. The tendency to show peaks of availability is
not so apparent as is the case with phosphate, potash and nitrate.
Nevertheless, the high-humus fields on the Organic section do give
the highest levels of available sodium during the summer months,
and those on the Stockless section very low figures following the
autumn rains.
Trace Elements
Earlier work at Haugbley indicates that there were adequate
levels in the total amounts of all the normally recognized trace
elements, e.g. copper, cobalt, zinc, manganese, molybdenum and
iron. The work carried out in 1957 on available trace elements
brought to light some interesting facts. It seems that there may be
seasonal variations in the levels of availability of these minor
elements, similar to the fluctuations which have been shown with
nitrogen, phosphate and potash; but this needs more prolonged
study yet. To date the highest levels of available copper are shown
on the Stockless fields, and the lowest on the Organic land. With
available iron, however, a very clear picture has emerged. The
range of available iron on the Stockless fields is from 65 to 77 ppm.
On the Mixed fields it varies from 60 to 90 ppm. But on the Organic
section it is from 50 to 250 ppm. Those Organic fields with lowish
figures for available iron are those we have found to be the least
'kind' on the section, whereas those with figures above 200 ppm
are the most fertile, and incidentally those fields with highest
humus content. De Koch & Strucki (Physiol. Planet. 1954, vol. 7,
p. 503) have, whilst investigating the growth-promoting activity of
lignite, showed that this effect was due to the complexing of iron
with the humic acid fraction. These workers drew the conclusion
240
APPBNDIX II
that the metallo-organic complex of iron so formed renders the
iron more available to the plant.
The increase of plant growth on Organic fields of high humus
may be in part resultant from this factor-since iron in the plant
is essential for chlorophyll formation as well as other enzymic
reactions in the cell. This finding is, in our opinion, most important
and is worthy of more intensive investigation.
Conclusions from Soil Analysis

The soil analysis has demonstrated the futility of advice on
fertilizer treatment based on spot analysis for so-called available
minerals. Fluctuations in those levels may now be said to have
become an accepted scientific fact. The peaks in concentration of
phosphate, potash, and nitrate which appear in soils (particularly
if of high humus content) seem to bear a relationship to the sea-
sonal needs of the plant and suggests that the availability of min-
erals is a result of a complex biological relationship between plant
and soil. It is of interest that this seasonal fluctuation is not nearly
so marked in soil under leys (where grazing occurs and where root
growth is established) as in soil where arable crops (particularly
roots) are grown. In fields on the Stockless section this seasonal
variation is not apparent and, indeed, any fluctuations in level of
availability is connected rather with the application of artificial
fertilizers.
The observations on changes in mineral availability first noticed
at Haughley have been confirmed by workers at the East of Scot-
land Agricultural College and by N.A.A.S. investigators. At the
moment, however, the theoretical mechanism of these findings is
not understood, and facts which are emerging from the Haughley
experiments are most valuable in the elucidation of these pheno-
mena.
The fields on the Organic section rich in humus show also in-
creasing levels of total nitrogen (nitrogen bank). This rise is not
apparent on the Mixed and Stockless sections despite the yearly
additions of nitrogenous fertilizers. The increase, therefore, must
arise as a result of a stimulation of nitrogen-fixing organisms. The
inescapable conclusion is that high humus content and enhanced
microbiological activity are inter-connected.
241
APPENDIX II
RESULTS OBTAINED TO DATE: (2) ANALYSIS

OF PRODUCE
Vitamin C
Vitamin C determinations have been carried out on milk samples
collected monthly. Variations from 1·3 to 2·5 mg/IOO m1 have
been encountered. The average results of 1·95 mg per cent
indicate that no herd difference is yet discernible. During the
spring of 1955, vitamin C determinations were made on night and
morning specimens of milk from the two herds. No significant
differences were obtained from the results of this series. Vitamin C
determinations of potato crops grown on the three sections have
shown seasonal differences to be greater than sectional ones.
The A and B Group Vitamins

Thiamine, Riboflavin, and Nicotinamide have been estimated
on all cereal crops. There is no consistent pattern of variations to
date.
We have shown that the Riker variety of barley contains nearly
three times the amount of Niacin that occurs in other well-known
varieties, but this finding is definitely a variety difference, since it
is present in the barley from all three sections. With samples of
grazing material, we have noted that the vitamin A content is
much higber in those from the Organic section. This factor is prob-
ably associated with the different type of herbs grown on this
section other than with fertilizer treatment. Nevertheless, it may
be a factor of importance in the feeding of the stock.
Silage and Hay

True food value is likely to be related more closely to total solids
content than to total bulk of fodder. Results of analyses of silage
and hay suggest that the apparently more lush growth of pasture
from the Mixed section (on which chemical fertilizer is applied),
does not contain so high a total solid content as that from the
Organic section. This appears to be less noticeable during wet
seasons.
242
APPENDIX II
Results of agricultural research experiments are normally based
on bulk yields, and if marked variation in moisture occurs (as in
the case of grasses, etc.), then misleading conclusions may be drawn
unless cognizance is taken of this fact. Protein content (based on
dry matter) has shown a consistently higher value in lucerne from
the Organic section.
Analysis of Crops
Analysis of crops for estimated food value (Le. protein, fats and
carbohydrate, and potential carbohydrates) has produced interest-
ing results. The variations from season to season are more marked
than sectional differences; it is, therefore, possible to make
comparisons only on a yearly basis. Ash content of crops has
shown that in many instances the values from organically-grown
samples are greatest, and often those from the Stockless fields are
lowest.
Attention is drawn to the finding that the recovery of nitrogen,
phosphorus and potassium in the crops seems to bear no relation-
ship to the amounts added in the form of fertilizer. Often, both
total and percentage concentrations in Organic crops are equal to
or greater than those from the Mixed and Stockless sections where
NPK fertilizers are regularly added.
RESULTS OBTAINED TO DATE: (3) MILK YIELDS

AND ANALYSES
The two herds being built up on the stock-bearing sections are
now nearing stabilization. Until similar full-sized herds were avail-
able, results could not be compared. The figures of milk yield per
full-time animal are available for the period under review and
indicate satisfactory progress in production. Over the period
1952-57 the animals from the Organic section have shown
highest annual yields per head, despite having had more restricted
rations for at least two periods. The first of these was 1952, when
the crop rotations were still in process of being reorganized; the
second was the exceptionally dry spring and early summer of 1955.
when the Organic leys had perforce to be overstocked.
243
APPENDIX II
Milk Average per Year over Six Years
HERD AVERAGE
(including first-calf heifers)
Organic 7,303 lb./head
Mixed 6,455 lb./head
(Note: Some individual animals have exceeded 10,000 lb. p.a. on
the Organic, and 9,500 lb. p.a. on the Mixed, and the lower-yielding
cows are now being eliminated.)
Protein output per animal per year shows a similar trend.
Organic herd 319 lb.
Mixed herd 288 lb.
The ash, potash and phosphate contents of the milk likewise reveal
highest output from the Organic herd. If these findings are con-
firmed now that the herds are stabilized and bulk yields are rising,
then the results will be of great interest.
Poultry
An excellent flock of poultry of the Golden strain is established
on each of the two stock-bearing sections. The birds have free range
and follow after the cattle as the leys are grazed. In this way,
poultry add fertility to all the fields during the rotational period.
The birds on the two sections compare very favourably as far as
egg production is concerned, although during the past two years
the Organic farm has produced some 4,000 more eggs than the
Mixed section with a similar number of birds.
RESULTS OBTAINED TO DATE: (4) CROP YIELDS

During the period of the experiment the crop yields have varied
much according to season. Generally speaking, yields have been
up to or above the average for the country each year. Perhaps the
most provocative fact is that the crop yields on the Organic section
have been up to or even higher than those on the Mixed section
where chemical fertilizers are added on the assumption that in-
.creased yields will result. It is true that so far the experiment is of
'short duration, but soil analysis shows that, rather than fertility on
the Organic section diminishing as a result of crop demands, the
.reverse situation is occurring.
244
APPENDIX II
Effect upon Seed Genetics
On all sections (except for the leys) the seeds used are those
grown on the particular section the preceding year. In this way the
effect of the method of husbandry on the genetics of the seed may
be assessed. Most seeds on the farm are at least of the sixth genera-
tion on the same section-thus bearing the imprint of the manage-
ment of that particular section. Results are beginning to accrue
and show the Stockless section in an unfavourable light. As an
instance, the dressing of the grain for seed shows an increase each
year in the percentage of smalls removed, the same sieves being
used throughout. The most recent figures for wheat show:
Section Percentage of Smalls
Removed
Organic 5·5
Mixed 8·0
Stockless 10·0
The possibility of a gradual deterioration in fertility of home-grown
seed on soil heavily treated with chemicals may be a factor which
to date has received insufficient attention, and the Haugbley Ex-
periment may shed considerable light on the subject.
Cereal Measurements
Measurements of the straw grown on the three sections have
invariably shown that the material grown on the Organic section
is thicker and stronger, and so stands up to storms and winds
more readily than that from the other two sections. Almost always
the cereals on the Stockless section lodge under the effect of heavy
weather, and losses are inevitably encountered for this reason. This
is true to a less marked extent on the Mixed fields, but here again
lodging often occurs with crops grown immediately after the
ploughing up of a ley.
Disease
To date very little disease has been found on any of the sections
at Haugbley. With the herds, veterinary visits are concerned with
accidents only, and there has been no need for therapeutic treat-
ment of any kind. Similarly with the crops, very little disease has
245
APPENDIX II
been observed and this seems to be unconnected with sectional
differences.
The exception is virus disease in potatoes. The practice of using
home-grown seed for potatoes has once more indicated that in the
south of the country at least virus disease is inevitable, and yields
have declined progressively on all sections to a point where it is
now considered useless to continue this aspect of the Experiment.
Weeds
The incidence of weeds is greatest on the Stockless section where
the policy is to control by spraying. This technique would also be
applied on the Mixed section if necessary, but experience confirms
that under the rotational ley system of farming such measures are
superfluous.
Soil Balance Sheet

Organic farming has been criticized on the grounds that minerals
are being removed from the farm and insufficiently replaced in the
form of manures. At Haughley, on the stock-bearing sections, only
milk and eggs (and occasionally meat) are removed- all else being
returned to the land.
Our calculations, based on the mineral reserves of the top nine
inches of soil, show that the amounts removed annually are less
than l/l,OOOth of the total for nitrogen, 1/2,OOOth for phosphate,
and 1/3,OOOth for potash. When we consider that nitrogen fixation
is occurring to the extent of more than supplying the crop needs,
and that deep-rooting plants are constantly bringing up reserve
minerals from below, it is clear that with this method of ley dairy
farming the soil balance sheet is not disturbed.
On the other hand, on the Mixed section, the amount removed
in produce from the farm is less than 1/18th of the nitrogen,
l/4Oth of the phosphate, and 1/5Oth of the potash annually applied
in chemical form. This appears to be a very extravagant method of
working, but it is in accordance with normal fertilizer practice.
With the Stockless section, where all produce grown is removed,
the replacement effect of chemicals is less extravagant, but even
here the ratio of chemical reaped to that applied is very much less
than unity.
246
APPENDIX II
Organic farming is also sometimes criticized on the ground of
cost. To date, at Haugbley, the Mixed and Organic sections appear
to cost about the same for management, and give approximately
similar yields of milk and eggs; the difference in cost, therefore,
is precisely that of the chemical fertilizers applied on the Mixed
section.
The heavy land at Haughley, and the situation, do not make
conditions ideal for ley farming, and the three wet autumns of
1956, 1957 and 1958 have shown up the fact that, to obtain satis-
factory results from Organic methods, it is essential that the
farming management shonld be at the highest peak of efficiency,
particularly with regard to cultivation.
R. F. MILTON
247
APPENDIX III
LEITERS FROM SIR JAMES TURNER AND SIR SAMUEL

WADHAM TO THE TIMES, 21sT JUNE 1958
To the Editor of ' The Times' Agriculture House,

Knightsbridge, S. W. J.
June 19th.
Sir,
The recent correspondence on prices of primary commodities
is a natural sequel to that initiated in your columns last autumn
by a group of distinguished economists who stressed the economic
and political dangers to the Western countries of the fall in
primary commodity prices.
At that time, on November 7th, you published a letter from me
in which I emphasized that the highly industrialized countries
could not reasonably expect to reap the benefits of low prices for
primary products and at the same time expect the primary produc-
ing countries to remain good customers for the products of manu-
facturing industry.
The heavy fall in the prices of many primary products in the
past year is a continuation of the switchback movement which has
characterized prices of primary products throughout the century_
In the long run this is good for neither the primary producer nor
the manufacturer. Is this the time for Governments to launch a
strong attack on the problems resulting from this chronic in-
s~ability? There is no lack of techniques to fit the varying circum-
stances of each commodity, ranging from formal multilateral
contract agreements and buffer stock schemes to informal con-
sultative arrangements between Governments.
The basic long-term problem is that of surpluses caused by
under-consumption. When two-thirds of the world's population
is ill-clad, badly housed, and under-nourished, there is an obvious
248
APPENDIX III
need for all the food, fibres, and minerals that can be produced,
but effective demand is lacking. For the countries of the Western
world, who depend so vitally on trade, it would be no more than
enlightened self-interest to stimulate development in the less-
industrialized countries and thus create additional purchasing
power. Indeed, studies by F.A.O. indicate the lines along which
existing agricultural surpluses could be used to foster such develop-
ment.
The forthcoming Commonwealth Trade and Economic Con-
ference, which will discuss proposals for a Commonwealth Bank,
provides an admirable opportunity to speed up such progress.
But it must not be forgotten that the success of development pro-
jects and the activities of the proposed bank must ultimately rest
on the firm foundation of stable world prices for the commodities
on which the under-developed countries must inevitably depend
for their export earnings for many years to come.
Yours faithfully,
JAMES TURNER,
President, National Farmers' Union.
c/o 8 Luard Road,

Cambridge.
Sir,
Various correspondents have commented on the declining values
of raw materials and the unfortunate results of that decline on the
economies of the exporting countries. Those of us who saw a
similar process in operation during the late 1920s and 1930s are
well aware of the problem. We also know that when the prices of
farm commodities fall the first reaction of most farmers is to grow
more, and that sometimes in the past their financial advisers have
advocated such a course. One hopes that their modern descendants
have learnt that such a policy is disastrous.
It is commonly assumed that manufacturers must be pleased at
getting their raw materials for less, but actually the uncertainty as
to the future prices of raw materials is a serious handicap in quot-
ing for long contracts, while hedging on a futures market, if avail-
able, is apt to be expensive and not always satisfactory.
Both primary producer and manufacturer would be glad of firm
249
APPENDIX III
prices for graded commodities. But there are two difficulties-first,
the necessity of doing something effective with such surpluses as
will certainly accumulate unless consumption keeps in step with
production, secondly, a decision as to the course to be adopted if
a new and cheaper substitute takes the place of a commodity
which was once generally used. Margarine's replacement of butter
is an example of the second, and the present slackening demand for
wool due to economic uncertainty in several countries, combined
with greater world production of wool, is a typical case of the
first. Many countries which were formerly dependent on farm
products for their development have been or are now becoming
industrialized, so that their whole national life need not be de-
moralized by a fall in the prices of the raw materials they export.
Canada, Australia, and South Africa illustrate this change. Others,
especially those which have recently obtained independent nation-
hood, are not in that position. Their peoples are looking forward
under democratic self-government to a general uplift of their
standards of living. This whole development will be jeopardized
if the prices of their products fall markedly. Nor can they improve
their position by exporting more, for that will only depress the
prices further. They can only improve their lot through intelligently
planned industrialization, and for such a development external
assistance will be essential.
The 'haves' must either help the 'have nots' or democracy will
prove a disastrous failure in these countries. For Britain these
changes may mean the disappearance of the last elements of the
'cheap food' ideal which was dominant for a century; but is there
any other alternative now that gunboats are out of fashion ?
One advantage of recognizing the need for stable and relatively
high prices for raw materials would be a reduced need for subsidies
for home agriculture.
Yours, etc.,
S. M. WADHAM,
Emeritus Professor of Agriculture,
University of Melbourne.
The above letters appeared under the heading: 'Raw Material

Prices: Help for Backward Economies'.
250
APPENDIX IV
BABIES BORN BY THE MILLION

(from 'The Times' of 12th December, 1958
By SIR HERBERT BROADLEY
UNICEF Representative Jor the United Kingdom
W
ell over 1,000 million babies have been born into this
world since UNICEF (the United Nations Children's
Fund) was established in December 1946. Of this vast
total between 150 and 200 million died before reaching their first
birthday. Exact statistics are not possible owing to the inadequacy
or absence of demographic information for many countries. Of
the survivors from this 1,000 million, between 600 and 650 million
were exposed to hunger, and to diseases such as malaria, yaws,
trachoma, tuberculosis, leprosy; threatening premature death, dis-
figuration, blindness, or debility; condemning them, if and when
they grew up, to a bare subsistence livelihood and incapable of
contributing to the common good. Of the original 1,000 million
only between 150 and 250 millions have received a fair start in life
to fit them as future citizens of their countries and of the world.
ONLY THE BEGINNING

This is only the beginning of the story. During the next twelve
years, according to the demographers, over 1,500 million more
babies will be born. How many of these will die in their infancy,
how many be exposed to avoidable hunger and disease, how many
lack even the rudiments of education and training for their future
social responsibilities? This is the challenge to the present genera-
tion; seeing that it is those who survive from the 1,000 million born
during the past twelve years and the 50 per cent more expected in
251
APPENDIX IV
the next twelve years who will be responsible for the political,
moral, religious, social and economic state of the world at the end
of the present century.
It is undoubtedly the task of our generation to make plans for
the feeding, clothing, housing and employment of a world popula-
tion which, by the year 2000, will at least be double the 1950 :figure
of 2,500 million; but it will be those now being born who will have
to carry these plans to fruition and improve upon them. They must
be equipped to bear the burden.
Much of the responsibility for the rising generations lies with
their own parents and national governments. But there is a wider
responsibility which all countries share and which is being exer-
cised through various national and international organizations.
This is an age in which the concept of international community
and international responsiQility has, perhaps for the first time, been
accepted. The Marshall Plan, the Colombo Plan, the vast United
States Technical Co-operation grants (under various titles and
varying initials), the international programmes (the United Nations,
the International Bank, the Specialized Agencies, Technical Assis-
tance, the new Special Fund and UNICEF itself) are all instances
of its being translated into practical terms.
NATURAL RESOURCES
But it may well be asked: is not all raising of health standards
and reduction of death rates increasing the population problem
that will be acute before the end of the century? Were this all it
would indeed be a criticism, but the international effort is also
directed to the more effective use of natural resources, restoring
land to cultivation, increasing yields and the development of new
sources of food.
While other international organizations deal with health, agri-
. culture, education, in their broadest aspects, covering as much as
possible of the world's population and the world's resources, the
nations of the world, with an eye on the future, decided that a
separate organization, devoting itself to the welfare of children and
their mothers, was essential. Even before some of these other
organizations came into being UNICEF had been started as a body
252
APPENDIX IV
to relieve the needs of starving and suffering children of the war-
devastated areas. Then it extended its field of operations to coun-
tries outside these regions where other children also suffered from
hunger, privation, and disease. Later, the United Nations General
Assembly directed UNICEF to shift its emphasis to long-term
programmes in the field of child welfare, chiefly in the economic-
ally under-developed areas, and finally, in 1953, decided to continue
it indefinitely.
ALL TOO FEW

What claim can be made by the international organizations to
stimulating and assisting national governments to give these 1,000
million babies a fair start in life? Alas, all too little. But the authori-
ties and many parents in no fewer than ninety-seven countries and
territories are today returning thanks to UNICEF for the efforts
being undertaken to feed, heal and protect some 50 million children
and mothers. It is helping to establish maternal and child welfare
services; to fight diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, yaws,
leprosy, trachoma; and to feed hungry children through its nutri-
tion programmes. Still, how few this 50 million is compared with
the 600 to 650 million children exposed to hunger, disease, ignor-
ance!
At the same time it must be remembered that no international
organization can operate like a beneficent invading army leaving
a rejuvenated population of men, women and children in its train.
They can participate in child welfare and other projects only at the
request of the Government of a country and then in co-operation
with that Government. In all UNICEF-aided projects, for instance,
the Government concerned is spending, on buildings, local per-
sonnel and local supplies, on the average two and a half times or
more what UNICEF is spending.
This is an indication of how international guidance is being
linked with national effort; a tribute to the increasing recognition
of the fact that many of today's problems must be tackled inter-
nationally. It is this recognition which is providing the incentive
and the help which many national governments need. And help it
is that they specially require-technical help, equipment which they
253
APPENDIX IV
themselves do not produce, and capital for investment. Moreover,
while much of the motive for providing this help is disinterested,
it benefits provider and recipient alike.
LONG-TERM ISSUES
In its twelve years' history, and particularly after the initial
emergency period, UNICEF's contribution to helping the needy
children of the world has had to be tailored to its limited resources.
Its expected income for 1958 will be about £8,500,000, mainly
contributed by some eighty governments. The government con-
tributions are supplemented by donations from organizations,
institutions, churches, schools, and private individuals. These
donations represent just under 6 per cent of the total. The contri-
bution of the United Kingdom Government is £235,000, or approxi-
mately 3 per cent of the full amount.
So far as the rising generations are concerned the problems are
no longer those of helping hungry and suffering children in war-
devastated regions, but the long-term issues of creating the con-
ditions in which effective economic and social progress, and there-
fore peace itself, are assured. Of all the contributions to economic
development UNICEF can claim to be rendering the most funda-
mental service; for what investment will ultimately prove more
rewarding than investment in healthier, well-fed, better-educated
human beings. And this must begin with the mothers and children
of today and tomorrow.
AUTHORS' NOTE
Nobody, not even a misanthrope, could read the article by Sir

Herbert Broadley of UNICEF, without shedding a tear of human
.sympathy for the sufferings of those thousand million babies, not
one of whom asked to be born into a world so universally and
completely disorganized as this ill-contrived planet finds itself
today. I hesitate to express either criticisms or opinions upon a
subject so complex as that which faces UNICEF, but as I sit back
and quietly contemplate the utter mess that the leaders of mankind
are unable to deal with adequately, I find myself taking refuge in
254
APPENDIX IV
the farmer's outlook and regarding this enormous problem as if it
was a farmer's responsibility. In other words, if I am faced with
over-production of livestock on the farm, a state of affairs that
can easily come about, what do I do? I either slaughter the sur-
plus, or sell them to other farmers who are not over-stocked. If,
indeed, this is an equally dependable outlook, in so far ~s its latter
resource is concerned, for human-kind, is it not the obvious duty
of UNICEF to bring constructive suggestions before the UNITED
NATIONS ASSEMBLY, and organize transfer of the surplus popula-
tions to those 'wide open spaces' of say, Canada and Australia,
where land may be available, and where they can be brought to
care for the soil which might sustain them? Is that the solution?
And is it as simple as all that?
This may be a practical solution. On the other hand it may not,
for dealing with animals on the farm is one thing: the animals are
not consulted as to whether they would like to be removed else-
where, but are simply fairly and squarely taken elsewhere, and that
is the end of it. When, however, one is similarly dealing with the
transposition of men and women, one is faced with the problem of
their probable unwillingness to go. And even if they do consent,
what other problems face us? Let me narrate the following inci-
dents of which I quite recently had personal knowledge.
A brace of pheasants were sent to friends of ours after a shooting
party. The wife could not soil her fingers or offend her nostrils by
plucking the birds and subsequently disembowelling them, so they
were sent to the local poultry and game shop round the corner.
There the game dealer had a brace of birds that had gone decidedly
'off'. He exchanged our good birds for his own two birds that were
well on the way to being rotten and dangerous to eat. The lady in
the flat cooked those semi-decomposed carcasses, and gave a very
risky meal to her family, a meal which might have put some of
them into hospital. Now, if the people of a civilized country like
England are so little interested in good food which they get for
'nothing', that they will not thoroughly prepare in their own home
the food so provided, I inquire, as a farmer, whether such human-
kind are really worthy of the food the farmer toils to provide to
keep them alive.
Here is another incident of modern life which may be a revealing
T 255
APPENDIX IV
episode. At the moment there is a great change-over from milk-
production-of which there was an excess-to beef, of which there
is a world-shortage. Dairy animals are being inseminated by beef-
bulls everywhere because calves so born are easier and quicker to
fatten then purely dairy-bred animals. This is being carried out so
universally that replacements for the dairy herd are inadequate to
maintain the dairy stock. Within a year or two there will be a short-
age of milk, and a possible famine-price ensuing.
The beef-calves are fetching high prices in the market and making
the costs of beef-production excessive. Makers of concentrated
feeding-stuffs are, therefore, conducting elaborate experiments to
try and achieve three things. One is to reduce the period of growth
and fattening to about one year instead of three; the second is to
reduce the costs of production; the third is to produce a 'leaner'
carcass, because modem life with its sedentary occupations pro-
duces constitutions which simply cannot consume the old-fashioned
fat of the three-year-old bullock.
At a place some forty-five miles from Chantry a costly and
thorough experiment of a practical character is being conducted,
and we were specially invited to visit it by the Director who is in
charge. There we found calves that receive 'milk' for a fortnight
only, then were promptly weaned and fed on 'milk substitute' and
calf nuts. They are kept in dark individual tiny pens, never allowed
to take exercise, never see a blade of grass or green food. To hasten
still more drastically the production of meat, antibiotics are in
regular use, and hormones to suppress the growth of the sexual
organs are incorporated in the diet. They have succeeded in pro-
ducing a young beef animal, weighing 8 cwt., at twelve months old.
Killed, the carcass is nearly all lean, no fat, and to such an extent,
that fat has to be introduced for cooking purposes. The meat is
tender, but flavourless. But it must contain both antibiotics, and
hormones, and these ingredients- for good or ill-must be con-
'sumed by the humans eating that meat.
For the sake of argument, let us assume that the stilbestrol or
hexoestrol, and the antibiotics, are all consumed by the humans
eating the meat; what is the effect of these ingredients on mankind,
both men and women? Will they sterilize their sexual potencies,
and provide their metabolism with as yet unheard-of flora and
256
APPENDIX IV
fauna internally to an extent that no one can begin to estimate?
If they do, and if humans cease to reproduce, perhaps this may be
Dame Nature's way of arresting a rising world population which
is multiplying so alarmingly. But in seeking to intrepret this con-
solation would it not be as well to remember that it will be the white
people who diminish, for it is they who are consuming these modern
foodstuffs, not the coloured races. We put these facts before the
Director of this experimental station while having a drink at a
nearby pub, and his reply was illuminating. 'The basis of the
world's troubles today is too many people. A greater and greater
number must succumb. There are far too many already. Anti-
biotics and hormones may, and perhaps will, produce sterility. If
they do, that is all to the good. We have got to cheapen and hasten
meat production. This is the way to do it.'
This 'hormonizing' of cattle is one thing. Another fact relevant
to my conclusions is that the aspirin for keeping the baby quiet
while parents go out is replacing the baby-sitter in some circles.
So this is the picture: if you are thoroughly up to date your beef,
mutton, pork, bacon, broilers, eggs and the rest, are fed on anti-
biotics, hexoestrol and so on, while the children left at home are
kept asleep with aspirin.
257
APPENDIX V
COWS ARE 'ALMOST PERMANENT

INVALIDS'
(from the Farmer's Weekly of 18th April 1958)
r. A. G. Street, the well-known farming commentator,
M had this to say about modem dairy farming in the

Farmer's Weekly of 18th April 1958:
'I am appalled at the increase of veterinary attention that is
now needed, at the high mortality, at the infertility and at the many
new diseases such as magnesium deficiency, etcetera. I don't blame
silage as my friend did, neither have I any evidence to blame either
artificial insemination, high feeding of concentrates, increased milk
yields, grazing leys instead of old pasture, or anything else. But
what I do know for certain is that now the vet. is almost a daily
visitor on many dairy farms, whereas when I milked over a hun-
dred cows his services were only called in for the occasional difficult
calving. Why this should be, I don't know; but it does seem that
most dairy cows today are almost permanent invalids.'
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Arthur Street invariably expresses his findings in terms moderate

in the extreme, and when he outlines his knowledge of the health
of dairy stock as forcefully as he does in the foregoing paragraph
it would be as wen if the British public took notice.
In Humus-and the Farmer fourteen years ago I predicted the
trend of health of dairy stock, and Mr. Street's words show that
what I foretold is proving all too true. But are we nearing the end
of our troubles with dairy stock health? Is there any hope that the
future holds visions of better things?
At the recent Oxford Farming Conference one farmer on a
258
APPENDIX V
considerable scale is reported to have said, after explaining how
he had intensified production, that complexities were beginning
to rear their ugly heads-diseases of intensive stocking. He had a
couple of cases of mastitis a year before the war, but now he
pumps stuff (penicillin presumably) into the animals morning,
noon and night; he, apparently justifying his economic need to
maintain the utmost production, is reported to have said: 'To hell
with posterity, look after yourself.'
A few years ago I was called to advise on a large and valuable
herd of pedigree dairy cattle wlllch was infected with vibrio-foetus,
Johue's Disease, and contagious abortion. If J give too many de-
tails its identity may be disclosed, so I will only say that my recom-
mendations promised no hope whatsoever that that valuable herd
could be saved from slaughter. I could only prescribe for the future
of other cattle in tbe same bands.
Another large dairy berd of wlllch I know much, but with whicb
I bave not had any professional contact, frequently has as many
as two deaths in a week, and seldom a calving unaccompanied by
milk-fever, with mastitis everywhere, perhaps not a cow in the
herd free from it; Jobne's disease; grass tetany; contagious abor-
tion, and the application of penicillin as commonplace as the pro-
vision of food.
If, and when, the British public becomes aware of the extent to
which virulent disease has overtaken so very many herds in Eng-
land, will they one day quietly determine that not another pint of
milk is going to be fed to their children? Or don't they care what
their children consume?
From a farmer's viewpoint, surely, rivers of milk, even if mo-
mentarily profitable (which I doubt, if good accountancy is
practised) can scarcely be regarded as sane economics if in the end
they destroy their own market through disease.
259
LIFE
EPILOGUE BY THE AUTHOR
hat is life? We do not know, except that it is there, is a
W force, and refuses to be analysed. We do know this,

however, that it has five sharp divisions, namely:
birth; growth; maturity; death; decay; and that out of decay
springs the resurrection of life, and the cycle goes on for ever. But
for the perpetuation of this cycle, food-and food of supreme
quality-is essential.
Reviewing briefly the contents of this book, this is what we find:
an essay by Lady Howard, Associate of Newnham College; Corre-
sponding Member of Czechoslovak Academy of Agriculture;
sometime Chief of Agricultural Service of the International
Labour Office, Geneva; author; widow of the late Sir Albert
Howard, an agricultural scientist of international repute. In her
brilliant introduction to this book she too is expounding her ideas
on life, and 'The Balance of Nature', her title, summarizes her
ideal.
Then we find comments by Sir James Turner (as he then
was), a famous farmer, for over fourteen years president of the
National Farmers' Union of England and Wales, and one of the
world's eminent authorities on the economics of agriculture. He
herein discusses the folly of degrading 'primary products' to the
detriment of the national economy. Primary products are food-
which sustain life .
. Further contributions have been made by: Sir Samuel Wadham,
an eminent scientist, an authority on economics (especially as re-
gards Commonwealth relations and well-being) points out the
folly of degrading prices of primary products especially where
New Zealand and Britain are affected. Again the theme is food
-which sustains life. Sir Herbert Broadley, whose knowledge of
world food-growing resources is probably second to none, for,
260
LIFE: EPILOGUE BY THE AUTHOR
since its inception, he was Secretary-General & of the Food
Agricultural Organization of the world (F.A.O.), with head-
quarters in Rome. He is now U.K. Chief of UNICEF, and, as his
article emphasizes, he is concerned with life on a tremendous scale
as witness his 'Babies Born by the Million'. They are also dying in
millions, because of the inadequacies of their food. Jorian Jenks,
author and expert on agricultural economics, is editorial secretary
of Mother Earth, an informative and influential quarterly pub-
lished by the Soil Association, a world-wide organization formed
for the purpose of investigating the best methods of food produc-
tion: of ensuring good food, to sustain life in perfect health. Life is
again the object. Doctor Milton, a well-known biochemist, who is
in control of the Haughley Experiment. His findings give scientific
proof of my own findings over a half-century's farming experience,
namely, that you cannot farm without humus. If you would sus-
tain life on an exalted plane of perfect health, with a minimum of
disease, humus is a prerequisite. And Mr. A. G. Street's observa-
tion on cattle health is illuminating. Here are eight independent
people, representing cross-sections of authoritative thought, all
of whom, technically and economically, are worried about the
faulty set-up of agricultural practices in our time.
When we look around us we observe great excitement and glee
because a rocket has just missed the moon, and gone into orbit
round the sun. We are thrilled to be told that man is likely to be
making lunar journeys within twenty years. The world is spending
untold millions of pounds on these geophysical and atomic tests,
all of which may be commendable. But are we not grasping at the
shadow and missing the substance? This is no carping criticism
against anyone nation-we are all in it.
The elementary purpose of man is to live. He needs food to
achieve this, but takes it all for granted. It is much more exciting
to dwell upon the possibilities of nuclear development than the
possibilities of feeding mankind as he should be fed. By all means
let us persevere in our geophysical experiments, but why not devote
a little money to scientific food-production, with quality, not
quantity, as the objective, and through such food attain a standard
of he~lth where illness becomes a thing of the past? But few are
interested. Unlimited millions of pounds are available to be blown
261
LIFE: EPILOGUE BY THE AUTHOR
into space, but not one single half-million can be found to extend
through another five centres of experiment the invaluable scientific
work Doctor Milton is doing.
Now this work is most urgent. The trend of agricultural practice,
as my book shows, is to apply artificials in increasing quantities to
everything connected with food: more artificial nitrogen, phos-
phates and potash; rectify the shortcomings of faulty food by
drugs; destroy unwanted weeds by hormones and poison sprays;
write off disease as an inevitable on-cost; death is nothing; life is
cheap. In any event 'death' is part of the natural order. We must
put up with that. Antibiotics hasten the production of pork, beef,
mutton, poultry, broilers, eggs and milk and if they make a
number of both animals and man sterile, well, what of it, these are
only the casualties to be expected in modern life, when we are
driving everything at such speed, and under such pressure!
But is that all? Can we be sure that the 'write-offs' will not so
extend as to lead to the extermination of man himself?
That is possible-it may even be probable.
Hormone sprays alone may-at no distant date- render the
'green leaf' sterile, and unable to reproduce itself. If that happens,
man is right at the end of his tether. For both man and beast are
parasitic on the 'green leaf', it is our only source of food, there is
no other.
Is it not time that the simple provision of money to continue
the Soil Association's Research at Haughley, a mere half-million
pounds, should be forthcoming?
My half-century's experience as a practical farmer, and my
professional advisory work which has taken me half-way round
the world, tell me, and now more urgently than ever, that this is
man's most vital problem of all.
,January 1959
FRIEND SYKES
262
INDEX
Abbotsley experiments, 74n. d'Archaic, M. , 213
Aberystwyth, 100, 162; see Leys (88, Artificials (see also Fertilizers and
89) N.P.K.); some comparisons with
Accredited milk scheme, 53,150,153 compost, 70-5; dependence of, on
Aeration, provision of aerobic con- climate, 72- 3; and earthworms,
ditions generally, 56, 88, 98-119; see Earthworms; as humus ex-
as greenfiy check, 28; see also tractors, 90: increasing use of, 39;
Lathyrus Sativus as mycorrhiza killers, 141; and
Agriculture as creative industry, xxii spread of myxomatosis, 13; total
Agriculture, xxviii quantities made, xxiv
Agricultural Journal of Western Aus- Asian 'flu, 14
tralia, 183 Audubon Society, xxix
Agricultural Testament , An (Howard), Australian visitor to Chantry,
179,183
Alfalfa, clover replacing, 62 Bacteria: as man's essential 'feeder',
All-Australia Citrus Growers' Feder- 115; and earthworm, as workers,
ation, xxx 166
Alternate husbandry, see Four years' Baker, John H., xxix
ley-four years' arable Balance of nature, xvii- xxxiv, 258
'Amalia' (thoroughbred), 49 and passim
America, Central and South, ferti- Balfour, Lady Eve, 47, 22607 ; see
lizer use in, xxiv ; see also U.S.A. also Haughley
American sweet clover, see Melilotus Barrenness, wheat germ as remedy
alba for, 202
Ammonia: 'fixing' of, to prevent ' Base,' choice of, in composting,
manurial wastes, 128; ammonia 129- 30
sulphate as clover enemy, 115 Basic Slag, 84-5, 88, 89, 90
Amory, D. Heathcoat-, 45 Bear, Canadian, see Thomson
'Amy Leigh' (thoroughbred), 48- 9 Beef cattle: desirable characteristics
Anaerobic respiration, III of, 144; Galloways as, 153-5; as
Aneurin of whole wheat berry, 2) 1 grazers, 143-4
Animal; health, see Livestock; popu- Bennett, Dr. Hugh Hammond, 193;
lation cycles, xvii- xviii on conservation, 197-201; on
Antibiotics, dubious uses of, 4, 5, 14, erosion, 193-7
17, 18, 19,226-7 Berkshire pigs, 52
Apples, bananas, etc., spraying of, Biddulph, Major, 10
xxv-vi Black Death, 14-15; livestock disease
Arbuthnott, Viscount, land reclama- accompanying, 63; a 'Second', 52-
tion made by, 87-90 63
263
INDEX
Black rats, 14-15 86; subsoiling at, 98- 119, see also
Bledisloe, Lord, 151 Compost, Muck, Straw
Bloodstock Breeders' Review, 148 Chapman, Dr. Guy, 227
Blue-grey beef cattle (Galloway- Charlock, 85-6
Shorthorn cross), 154-5 Chemicals, 172-3
Border Leicester-Cheviot half-bred Chickens, see Eggs
sheep, 156 'Christmas Delight of Maple Lodge'
Bradford, the Earl of, 229 (champion bull), 53
Brandywine Valley project, xxi Churchill, Sir Winston, on statistics,
Bread, 17, and see Wholewheat 67
British Farmer, The, quo N.F.U. on Citric-soluble phosphate and potash,
hormones for stock, xxxiv 238-9
British Weed Control Conference, 41 Clifton Park system, 78
Bromfield, Louis, Malabar Farm Clovers, 158-60; Bokhara, Honey,
(Ohio) of, xxi etc., 161- 3; Kentish wild white,
Bruce Low Numeral Pedigree Chart, 162; as corrective in tea, rubber
146 monocultures, 163-4; for clovers
Buffalo, horse-dung as food of, 167 in mixtures, see Leys
Buffalo fly, 179- 80 Cockle Park tests, 71 - 5
Bush, Farmer, 1, 2 Combine harvesters, 91 - 3
Broadley, Sir Herbert, 251-4, 258 'Complete' fertilizers, deficiencies of,
102
Calcium, addition of, to bread, 205 Compost, farmers' neglect of, 64-6 ;
Carbonate of lime, F.Y.M. and, 129 and fertilizers, a comparison, 70
Carlyke, Sir R ., K.C.S.I., 26 Concentrated cattle foods, 53, 60, 61
Carnegie and Lindsay, 217 Connell. Dr. Minton, 179
Cash cropping, weed-elimination and, Conservation and wise soil utiliza-
41 tion, 197-201
Castello Branco property, 3 Constipation, 208
Cattle, 53, 55, 110 (see also Live- Contagious abortion, 54, 58, 61, 173
stock); concentrates for, 53, 60, 61 Coronary thrombosis, see Degener-
hedgerow grazing by, 67- 70; acy diseases
present low standard of, 61 ; Correspondence with author, 176-90
Shorthorn and Galloway com- Couch grass, 117
pared, 143, ]52- 5; see Beef, Dairy Coventry, B., 24
cattle Crocodile, place of, in nature, xviii
Cattle tick, 179 Crop analysis, 243 seqq.
Cereals, undersowing of, 81 ; whole Culling of stock, Haugbley, 236
and 'packet', 206, 209; see Wheat CUltivation, purpose of, 120-5
'Chanter' (thoroughbred), 50
Chantry, Chute, xxii, xxiii, xxxiv and 'Dail' (thoroughbred), xxiv, 48- 50,
passim ; buying of, 55; early 52, 54
troubles at, 58; failures of previous Dairy cattle, 148- 53 ; Channel Isles
tenants at, 85-6; five points of breeds as, 142-3; financial con-
farming technique at, 56; four- siderations with, 149-50; trouble-
year ley at, 56, and see Four-year someness of, as compared with
ley-four-year arable; grain har- beef cattle, 148
vesting at, xxiii, 36-7, 91-7; live- Darwin, Charles, on earthworm,
stock at,. 142- 57; pastures at, 77- 104-5, 213
264
INDEX
DDT, xxv, xxvi, xxxiii Endotrophic, ectotrophic mycor-
Debenham, Alice, 227 rhiza, 136-7
Deck, Henry, 122,227 English Farming, Past and Present, 63
Deep-rooting plants in ley, 56; see Erosion, 192, 193, 194-7; humus
Clover; as 'subsoilers' in shallow- checking, 76
land farming, 113-15; aeration by, Expanded metal plant (grain con-
161-3 ditioning), 92
Degeneracy diseases, increase io,
xxiii, 708 Fallow, 44-5
Delaney Committee of Congress, Farm wages, 36; see Labour costs
pesticides inquiry by, xxv Farmer and Stock-Breeder, 164
Denudation and erosion compared, Farmers' Weekly, 42
193, 1~5 Farming, Second-War changes in,
Diesel fuel on farms, 36 35-7
Dietetics, slow progress in, 174 Farming Memoirs of a West-country
Direct feeding (plant), unnaturalness Yeoman (Kendall), 207
of,131 Farmyard manure, composition of,
Direct reseeding of sward, 81 126
Diseaseresistance(plant): andhumus, Fat, stilbestrol-induced, xxxiii
3~1; and mycorrhiza, 31-3; dis- Fertility: creation of, as modern
eased material in compost, 33; procedure, xx; of hedgerow, as
(human, animal) as hopeful sign, example of farming with nature,
60; imminence of widespread, 7-8, 67- 70; humus as basis of, 98 seqq.
61 - 2 Fertilizers, 70-5; 'complete', 102;
DNC poisoning, deaths from, xxx- production of, xxiv
xxxi Five-course rotation in Haughley
Doby clay, 180 experiment, 234
Douglas, Lord of Barloch, 227 Fleas as disease carriers, 13- 16
Dutch barns at Chaotry, 97 Flour, bleaching of, 17; calcium
added to, 205; wholemeal, 202-10
'Early bite,' 84, 85; Melilotus alba as, Fluoridation of water, 19-20
163 Food: cheapness fallacy, 45, 65; pro-
Earthworms: Darwin on, 104-5,213; cessing,II,14,16-20,205,206,209
importance of, 213-25; 'mechan- Foot-and-mouth disease, 32- 3, 61
ism' of, 214-17; minerals made Forest soils, composition of, 70
available by (in casts, burrows), Four-year leys (with four-year-
104-5, 118; perforations in soil by, arable), 55-7, 75, 79, 158, 234-6;
217-19; population of, related to as part of subsoiling programme.
nitrogen availability, 82; as 'soil 113-14,118
analysts', 220; work of generally, Frank, A. B., truffle investigations
166, 221 ; working in hedgerows, 69 of,135-8
Earthworm farming (Ohio example), Frumenty, 208; recipe for, 21~11
222-4 Fungicides, xxiv; see Mycorrhiza
Easterbrook, Laurence, 227
'Eastern View' (thoroughbred), 50 Galloway cattle, 153-5; in Shorthorn
Eggs, free range and other, 18-19 cross, 154-5; as grazers, 143-4;
Elliot, Robert, of Cockle Park, 71 , straw from loose-boxes, consumed
75,78 by, 164, 167; toughness of con-
Emphyteusis, xx stitution of, 153-5
265
INDEX
Geddes, Lord, 174 selective feeding in, by livestock,
Genocide, infanticide, as economic 67,69
measures, xix 'Hedonist' (thoroughbred), 49
Germany, Denmark, etc., spraying Hensen's earthworm studies, 213, 217
in, xxviii Herbicides, 41- 5
Goldsmith quoted, xv Hicks, Col. Sir Stanton, 227
Graham-Little, Sir Ernest, 203 'His Reverence' (thoroughbred), 50,
Grain dryers, early, 9]; modern, 92 52
seqq. Honey (Huban) clover, see Melilotus
Grasshopper control, evil conse- alba
quences of, xxviii Hop-sickness, 20, 24
Grass seed prescriptions, 56, 78, and Hoppers, brick-lined, for grain
see Leys storage, 93
Grass tetany, see Hypermagnes- Hormones, stock treated with, xxxii,
aemia 226-7
Grazing, 79-80, 158-67; by dairy Horses: bloodstock, 48- 50; 144-7;
cattle and beef cattle, 142, 143; prices, 148; racing stock now at
by sheep, 142-3 Chantry, 110; vanishing of
Great Bread Mystery, The, 203 draught, 36
Green plant as 'life-giver', J68- 70, Howard, Sir Albert, ]2, 2]-34, 47,
260 62, 63n., 90, ]67, 169, 173, 177,
Greenfly, soil porosity as protection 183, 201, 219, 220, 226, 258
against, 27-8 Howard, Lady, xvii- xxxiv, 258
Green manuring, 79; timing of, 84; Humus: absorbency of, 122- 3; and
mustard grown for, see Mustard. bacteria, 108, 173; biological re-
See also Lemon groves placement of essential, 59 and
Guernseys at Chute, 152 passim; at HaugWey, 237-8; ex-
Guernsey cattle at Haughley, 234, amples of profitability of, xxiii, 35
243-4 seqq., 63n.; resistance to disease
Gypsy moth, control of, xxviii and, 30-1; as toxicity destroyer,
139-40; and water-bolding, 237;
Haller, W. von, on poison sprays, work and, 60-1
xxviii Humus and the Farmer, 35-45
Hammersmith, wastes disposal by, Hunzas, xix, 8-12, 50, 174
107 Hypermagnesaemia,6-8
Hannah Dairy Research Institute,
164 Indore composting (Sir Albert
Hares, as humus-fed crop eaters, Howard's), xxii, 109, 130
75-6 Insecticides, see Spraying
Harvesting, modern methods of, Interdependence of life forms, 59,
xxiii, 91 -7 164-6
. HaugWey, New Bells Farm, experi- Intramolecular respiration of the
ments, at, 47 seqq., Appendix n enzymes, in grain drying, 94, 203
Haymaking, tripod, 38- 41, 242; by Irrigation, xx
tedder and pick-up baler, 38, 96- 7
Health of livestock, basic rules for, Jackals, veldt clearance and, xviii
58- 9, A. G. Street on, 258 Jenks, Jorian, 41- 5, 226-3], 259
Hedgerows : as examples of fertility, Jersey cattle, 152
67- 70; rain-absorption by, 69-70; Johne's disease, 58, 61
266
INDEX
Jour'!l!_! of the Institute of Rural Life, Mackie, John, of Laurencekirk, 70-1
XVUl Ma~~ar~e Islands, animal cycles in,
XVlll- XIX
Kendall, S. G., 207 Maidenbead, wastes disposal at, 107
Kentish wild white clover 162 Man and animal as parasites,168- 70
'Kingswood Ceres Daisy' '(champion Manures: composition of, 126-32;
cow),52 spreading of, by cbain-barrow, 80;
Korea autopsies, lesson of, 7 and transpiration ratio, 113; work
Labour costs and problems, 37, 38, of shifting, by crane, xxiii, 39-40,
44, 46, 65-6, 156; drift from land, 2 57- 8, 61 , 66 ; manure not a ferti-
Land fellowship Letter (Toronto), lizer, 40
XXVIll
Marginal land, reclamation of, 87- 90
Land management, preliminary Martin, Dr. Hubert, xxviii
steps, 79- 80; reclamation, 55- 7, Mastitis, root cause of, 152
87-90 ; shallow, 113- 15 Matthews, Edgar D. , of Tukulu
Lathyrus sativlIs experiment (soil- Farm, xxi
aeration and insect attack relation- Mechanization and farm costs, 35- 7
ship),27-8 Medical opinion, 171 - 5
'Law of the Minimum', 102 Medical Press and Circular 171 - 5
Lawes' and Gilbert's introduction of 183, 203 "
artificials, 46 Medical Research Council, opinions
Lead arsenate (tobacco spray) and of, on bread , 205-6
cancer, 16 M elilotus alba, 161- 3; stock eating,
Leaf, as 'battery', 168- 9 161 -2
Leatherhead, wastes disposal scheme Milk, analyses, 242- 3; financial
at, 107 aspect of, 150-1; at Chantry, 50,
Legumes, see Deep-rooting plants 52; at Haughley, 243-4
Leys: mixtures ' Milton, Dr., 47, 259; and Appendix
Lemon farming, Major Pillsbury's II
180-3 ' Minerals, availability of, 103-4 '
Leys, four-year (with four-year 'mineral licks,' 234, 236; trace, se;
ar~ble), 56, 79 seqq., 88- 9,158-60 ;
trace elements; see also NPK
mIXtures for, 56, 88, 89 Nitrogen '
Liebig, Baron von, 33, 172- 3 Mir Mohammed Nazim Khan, 8- 9
Life, 5 main phases of, 258 Monocu1ture, folly of, 145 ; see
Life from the Soil (White and Stanton Rubber, Tea, Tobacco
Hicks), xxi Morris, Major, 54-5
Lime, 88, 89; effect of, on compost Mother Earth, 229, 235, 259
129 ' Muck-shifters (Rapier crane), xxiii,
Livestock at Chantry xxii xxiii 39-40, 57- 8, 61, 66
xxiv, 48-50, 52- 3, ],h- 57;' lOSSes' Municipal Engineering quoted, on
58 ' grass-verge weed-killers, xxix
Long Ashton Research Station Mustard crop, 79; and NPK situa-
orchard spraying at, xxvii- viii ' tion, 82; timing of, 84, 86
Lucerne, see Alfalfa; clover affinity Mycorrhizal association, 133-41
162 ' Myxomatosis, 12-14
McCarrison, Sir Robert, 10-1] 75-6 Natural Food and Farming (Texas),
174, 226 ' , xxviii
267
INDEX
New Biology, The, xviii Pollination, observation concerning
Nitrate accumulation, 83- 6, 239 (Howard), 24
Nitrogen: artificial, and hypermag- Population: Hunzas' restriction of,
nesaemia, 6-8; and clover, see 10, 11 ; swollen, food problems and,
Clover; and deprivation of trace xix; see Appendix IV
elements generally, 6; nitrogenous Portsmouth, the Earl of, 227
fertilizers, xxiv, 6-8; fixation of, Potash, phosphoric fertilizers, world
81-2, 83; fixation of, by Indore production of, xxiv
method, 130 (and see Indore); Potatoes, virus disease of, 246
humus as supplier of combined Poultry, true role of, 18-19, 145,157,
(nitrification and allied processes), 244
110; with potash, etc., in farm- Preston, T. R., xxxiii, xxxiv
yard manure, 126-7 Price, Dr. Weston, 16
NPK , 1, 5, 6, 40, 82 Prince Edward Islanders, mixed
farming of, 174
Oakes, Sir Cecil, 227 Processed foods, 1 J, 14, 16-20, 205,
Ogg, Sir William, 38- 9, 40 206, 209
Oliver, Dr., 222-4 Pusa Agricultural Research Institute,
On-and-off grazing principle, 85, 89 24, 25
Orchard, regeneration of, - with 'Pyrexia of unknown origin' (trench
humus, 31 - 2 fever), ]5-16
OrganiC Gardening, 222
'Organic refertiIization' described, 57
' Quality' criterion (as against
Our Daily Poison (Wickenden), xxxi
'quantity'), xx, 12, 69, 131, 172-3
Our Friend the Earfhworm (Oliver),
'Quarantine' of plant, seed im-
222
ports: ineffectiveness of, 22- 3
Queensland : buffalo fly in, 179- 80;
Parasites, animal and man, 168- 70;
fruit spraying programmes in,
as 'censors', see Howard, 21 seqq.
xxv- vi
Pasture, making a new, 77- 86, 236
Queensland Fruit and Vegetable
Paterson, John W. , 102n.
News, xxv- vi, xxxi
Pearse, Dr. Innes, 47, 226
Quetta experiment (Howard), 27- 9
Pedigree-nutrition ratio, 48, 53
Peel, Sir Robert, 64-5
Perennial grasses, weakening of, 78-9 Rabbits, 55; and myxomatosis, 12- 14
Phosphate levels, 238- 9 Rainfall, fertility and, 103, 105-6;
Phosphoric acid manufacture, xxiv and evaporation, 106-7, 112
Physiological diseases as metabolism Ransomes' machines, xxiii, 88, 98,
collapse, 21- 2 113, 121, 123, 124
Picton, Dr. Lionel, 47, 63n., 140,226 Rape o/the Earth (Jacks and Whyte),
Pigs, at Chantry, 17- 18, 50, 52; pig 191- 3; 'rape of earth' perceptible,
and poultry farms, 157; pigs, 191- 201
poultry in mixed farming, 157; as Rats, xviii, 14-15
grain converters, 37; as waste con- Rayner, Dr. M. C., 135-40, 227
sumers, 145 Refertilization, chemical 'strangle-
Pioneer Health Centre, Peckham, 226 hold' on, 60, 72- 3; typical pro-
Plant 'feeding', 100-5 grammes of, 3~, 55-9, 63, 77
Ploughs, modem, 124-5; ploughing, seqq.; work of pigs and poultry in,
shallow, 122-3 156
268
INDEX
Residues in Food of Toxic Chemicals Soil consti tuen ts, the seven necessary,
in Agriculture (1953), xxxi 102- 3
'Richings Beauty 1st' (pig), 52 'Solicitor General,' (thoroughbred)
Richings Park, 54 51
'Riker' barley, 242 South Australian Grower, xxvii
'Robin 0' Chantry' (thoroughbred), Southwark, wastes disposal at, 107
50 Speed of modern life, 3- 6
Rockefeller Trust, 62 Spraying of crops, xxiv, xxv, xxvi, 16,
Rothamsted, 33,46 260; economic pressures dictating,
Rowan, Professor W., xviii 44; as uninsurable risk, 43; deaths
Rowatt Institute, Aberdeen, xxiii from, xxx- xxxi
Rubber, 163-4 Spruce worm control, salmon affec-
Russell, Sir John, 42 ted by, xxviii
Rye covcr-crop system, see Pasture; Stahl, Professor, work of on sym-
and charlock suppression, 85; rye biotic nutrition, 137
management, 79- 80, 82 Stapleton, Sir George, 78, 176
'Statesman' (thoroughbred), 50, 52
Stein, Sir Aurel, 9
Scharff, Dr. T. W., 226 Stilbestrol pellets, dangers of, xxxii-
Science in Agriculture (Paterson), xxxiv
102 seqq. Straw, utilization of, 57, 64, 96, 109,
Scott, F. c., 227 111,130- 1,158
Scott-Williamson, Dr., 47, 226 Subsoiling, 98- 119; example of bene-
Seaweed (dried) for livestock, 234 fits of, 116- 17; in land reclama-
'Second Black Death' possibilities, tion, 88; need for slowness in, 99;
52-63 and mineral availability, ]03-4;
Seed genetics, 245 purpose, costs of, 99; and tran-
Sempill, Lord, 227 spiration ratio, 112; deep-rooting
Shallow ploughing, importance of, plants replacing, 56, 113-15, 161-3
122- 3 Sulphate of ammonia, basic slag,
Sheep at Chantry, 156; as grazers, 80, etc., on grass, clover, 84-5; as
81,89 worm killer, 105
Sheet compo sting, 56-7, 180--3. See Sunlight and chlorophyll, 168- 9
also Turf-manuring Sward, see Leys
Silage, Haughley findings, 242 Sykes, Friend, 226, 227 and passim
Silo grain, sweating of, 94 Symbiosis, see Mycorrhizal associa-
Slag, as time-saver, 88, 89, 90 tion
Smith, J. A. B., on atmospheric
urea, 164-5 Tampa Bay, Florida, xxix
Smoking and cancer, ]6 Tea, tobacco (monocrop), 163-4
Snowshoe rabbit, lynx decline and, Tennessee Valley achievement, xxi
xvii Terracing, xx, 9
Sodium, available, 240 Testimonies (borne and overseas),
Sodium fiuoracetate, as sewer-rat 176-90
poison, xviii Teviot, Lord, 172, 174, 175,227
Soil and crops, 1-34 and passim Thomson, Mr., on Canadian north-
Soil Association, The, 41, 46-51, and ern bear, 165
Appendix Times, The, xviii, 248- 50, 251-4
Appendix J; sone founders of, 227 'Top six inches' notion, 117- 18
269
INDEX
Town wastes, 107 Veldtrust, xviii
Toxic Chemicals in Agriculture (1951), Vergiftung durch Schutzmittel (W.
xxx, xxxi von Haller), xxviii
Trace elements, Haugh!ey, 240; sub- Verticillium wilt (hop disease), 20
soiling and, 99; surfaced by earth- Veterinary Journal, 171
worms, 221 'Victory' oats, in land reclamation,
Tractor, triumph of the, 36, 121, 125; 77
plough mounted on, 121 Vilmarin, 27; wheat, 27, 77, 89, 117
Transpiration ratio, 112, 113; effect Virgin land: misconception concern-
of manure on, 113 ing, xxii; misuse of, 201
Trench fever, 15-16 Virus diseases, 21-7, 246
Tripod hay, 96-7; reasons for super- Vitamin analyses, Haughley, 242
session of, at Chantry, 38-41
Tuberculosis in cattle, 53, 58, 61, Wadham, Sir Samuel, 249-50, 258
152-4 Waste heat, farm utilization of, 95
Tukulu, The, Rebirth of Cl South Water content of plants, 100-1
African Farm (Matthews), 21
Weathering, 107
TuB, Jethro, 120 'Weeber' (thoroughbred), 49
Turf-manuring, 71-5, 77 -
Weedicides, hormone, xxxii, 41- 5;
Turner, Christopher, 65
cultivations superseding, 50-1. See
Turner, Sir James, 248-9, 2S8 also Charlock, Couch
Wheat, British, 206-7; British seed,
Undersowing of cereals, 78-82, 89 207; crop, requirements of, 101;
United States of America: fertilizer whole, see Wholewheat
use in, xxiv; pesticides pr()duction White, Col. Hale, xxi
in, xxv; spraying in, xxviii; virgin
Wholewheat: for bread, 202-10;
land misused in (erosion), 201
barrenness cured by, 202; used as
'Unsolved Enigma, The' (Medical frumenty, 208, 210-11
Press and Clrcular) (flour mis- Wickenden, L., 31
handling), 203-6
Wilson, Capt. N. G. M., 226, 227
Urea, atmospheric, as food, 164
Woolton, Lord, as Food Minister,
Urine: as biological activator, 164;
203
nitrogenous and other elelbents of, World Science Review, xix
126; of pigs, poultry, uses of, 156;
Wormcasts, 213; for Worms, see
of sheep, bacteriologicaI content
Earthworms
of, 143 Wye College, Kent, 24
Van de Merve, J. N., xviii
'Van Diemen's Farm' (ChaIltry), 86 'X' disease, in U.S.A., xxxi
VaniUa, cumarin replacing, 17
Veldt clearance, xviii Zig-zag cultivations, 123
270
CHANTRY .ESTATE
..
~:
.
n
.J\....... .
---- \\ ""
BONd upon the Ordnance Survey map with the sanction of the Controller of H.M. Stationery Offtce
IIRARY
Hlltlonal Bure.u of toil aurv.y •
&.and u•• Planning (ICAR) ••ngator.
AvrROR~".. f.iJ..~L. NO ...._..__.,..
TITLE ~&.!!J:1Y,~1J1fi
ACCN. NO ~!",'t;:......,. .....-.--..- ............ -.V
~ -'\
....
80"..,'" Jleme o.,..t \~\'Af'.
JIIetumSllftettn'
.... .........................
~"
...................................
---
by Friend Sykes
FOOD, FARMING AND

THE FUTURE
" , , he does more than write with conviction;
he preaches revolution by going backwards-
to the common-sense ways of the past, when
man treated Nature with respect and not aa a
horse tbat could be flogged for evermOre, , , ,
This book deserves, not only to be widely read,
but to be widely studied.' Scottish Field
'Although not everyone will agree with Mr
Sykes' theories, there is no doubt that he can
point to some impressive achievements. , . ,
The author haa some shrewd comments to make
on the future of British agriculture and on the
probleJl18 facing a young man wishing to enter
farming." The Field
'Mr Sykes's ... argument ... is propelled by the
irresistible momentum of substantial and daz-
zling achievement.' Spectatqr
With photographs !l51 net
Phase wriU to Fob" and Fob" lid

114 Russ,ll Squtm Londo" weI
for a list of books on
Farmw and Gard.minL
FERTILITY FARMING N WMAN TURNER
'Mr Turner has succeeded in concentrating on the practice rather than on thc
philosophy of organic farming .... Whatever may be the average farmer's attitude
to farming without chemicals and ploughs, it is a fact tbat in these days when it is
of vital necessity that we achieve as much self-sufficiency i\S possible, the question
may be asked: "Can we afford to ignore such achievements as those described by
Mr Turner?" Mr Turner has provided a most interesting report on the experience
of getting a farm and its livestock "back to Nature". He has made a good job of
thc first full-length practical guide to "going fertility".' Scotsman
With 13 photographs :lIS nel
FERTILITY PASTURES NEWMAN TURNER

Herbal Leys as the basis of soil fertility and animal heallh
' ... a book full of original thinking by a practical farmer who has made a success
of carrying out his own ideas ... can be confidently recommended to anyone who
is trying to use his pastures as well as h ' can.' Agriculture
"With 39 photographs ISs 'let
HERDSMANSHIP NEWMAN TURNER

'In this rCl:ord of successful cattle farming the reader will find guidance on the
establishment of a herd, preparation for the cattle show, management for milk
production, and tbe prevention and treatment of disease.' T/~ Times Literary
SlIpplemellt
With 50 photographs 21$ nel
ORGANIC FARMING HUGH CORLEY
' He puts forw ard an honest and persuasive case for his system of farming, which he
describes in interesting and ~ery readable detail.' The Field ISS net
FARMING AND GAR.J)ENING FOR H~AI,tTH OR DISEASE

, SIR ALBERT HOWARD
'The book should be carefully studied by all who have the true interest of the soil,
and healthy crop ane) livestock production, a~ heart.' >'Tille Field
With 15 photographs OIId 5 diagrams 18s net
:~
THE WASTES OF CIVILISATION ' J. C. WYLIE
A survey of sewage disposaJ m tboas;
'bow 'our present system arose piecemeal,
why it is dangerous and wasteful, and how sewage could be employed to restore
land fertility. 16s net
FERTILITY FROM TOWN WASTES J. C. WYLIE

With a Foreword by Sir Cedric Stanton Hicks
'It should be read by everybody associated with any form of municipal activity
whatsoev('f ... the author writes well. The subject is not an easy one from any
viewpoint, and yet his broad statements about the complexity of organic trans-
formations have an evocative literary quality. He deals with the nature, value,
treatment and disposal of organic and illorganic wastes.' Spectator
With 35 photographs and 8.figum 25s net
THE CONSERVATION OF NATURAL RESOURCES
RICIIARD C. HAW
A practical textbook on soil erosion control in its widest sense written with detailed
simplicity. The author is an instructor at the Dombashawa School in Southern
Rhodesia and methods which can be applied simply and directly in all the dry
and hungry countries of the world are his life-study .
With 16 pages of plwtographs and 35 diagrams 30S ,"I
FA,BER . AND FABER LIMITED 24 Russell Square London WeI

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MODERN HUMUS

'This is OUI medical testament,

FABER AND FABER LIMITED

Acces. ion No .. ~..J.~ . . ..

MODERN HUMUS FARMING

Aoce . 10 : 1 J\~ . ......

B Fa.rming you should, the author suggests, read 'Introduction:

NOTE OF DEDICATION page v

'Ill fares the land, to hast'ning ills a prey,

n these immortal lines of Goldsmith's, written about the year

I 1750, there is deep thinking and cryptic prescience. Is it coin-

Apples (Granny Smith), 'typical spray programmes'.

Beans ('typical spray schedule').

Bananas (programme as recommended by the Queensland

Now this is reliable information brought forward in a court of

humans. This is only to be expected, seeing that they are a legacy

OUR SOIL AND OUR CROPS TODAY

cently, a visitor from Victoria, Australia, came to Chan-

HYPERMAGNESAEMIA (Grass Tetany)

THE HUNZA PEOPLE

FLEAS AS CARRIERS OF DISEASE

3. Weeber winning easily- the Kingsclere Stakes at Newbury

5. A modern grain-drying, conditioning and storage factory on a large farm

P.D.O. (Pyrexia of unknown origin)

Mother earth has provided a vast organization for indicating

HUMUS AND DISEASE RESISTANCE

8. View from Chantry windows- 'Where everY prospect pleases'

THE MYCORRHIZAL ASSOCIATION AND

Acces~ ion No .•.J..~.~ ..

THE INVESTIGATIONS OF TO-MORROW

'HUMUS AND THE FARMER'-

HERBICIDES (WEED-KILLERS) IN FARMING

Dear Jorian Jenks,

By way of supporting Jorian Jenks's contentions, quotations

THE SOIL ASSOCIATION

ome eleven years ago, or rather more, I realized that Organic

S Farming, whatever its virtues as known to me who had

WILL THERE BE A SECOND BLACK DEATH?

began farming over thirty years ago with a basic interest in

I Friesian cattle and Berkshire pigs. By 1923 our herd of Friesian

- a total of about 32 lb. of seed to the acre.

WHY THE ENGLISH FARMER DOES NOT

HEDGEROW FERTILITY; COMPARISONS

COMPARISONS BETWEEN ARTIFICIAL

THE STORY OF 300 HARES

MAKING A NEW PASTURE

W of an old pasture! Those who have had this experience

10. Hedonist by Big Game ex Amy Leigh

emphasize, is the timeliness of the whole operation. I have heard

n the month of July 1944, I was invited to visit the estate of

I the Viscount Arbuthnott of Arbuthnott House, Fordoun, in

38 lb. per Statute Acre

HARVESTING METHODS EXAMINED

W of the methods by which corn was then being harvested,

. llJinois in training as a two-year-old. Winner of Seven Dials Slakes a t Brighton.

16. Yearling colt, Hedonist

nder this title of Subsoiling I intend to cover some very

U wide issues. I shall never forget the time when I came to

COMPOSITION AND REQUIREMENTS

lb. lb. lb. lb.

CUL TIV ATIONS AND THEIR PURPOSE

C that there should be no need to refer to the subject at all;

I am allowing all the above, which I wrote in 1944, to stand,