In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

APPENDIX D FARMING FOR PROFIT ON A 750-ACRE FARM IN WILTSHIRE WITH ORGANIC MANURES AS THE SOLE MEDIUAf OF RE-FERTILIZATION BY FRIEND SYKES THE TASK of compressing into an article of 4,000 words and yet doing justice to the story of the enterprise indicated above is no easy undertaking . The whole story needs the book now in course of preparation which is likely to be published by Messrs. Faber and Faber in due course. For the last hundred years neither farming nor farmers have received at the hands of their fellow citizens a "fair crack of the whip." With ideas on trade and international commerce founded upon a thesis which has proved to be without equal in unsound thinking, with conceptions of economic theories which are as far apart from true economics as the North Pole from the South, our industrialists and their political counterparts have, since the year 1846 which saw the passing of Peel's Corn Laws, sold the farming of England for industrial gain. Slump has succeeded slump, unemployment has become an incurable cancer in our lives, upon one great war has followed a still greater war within the space of twenty years, all showing that something somewhere is wrong with our way of life. Few industrialists, viewing their declining exports, would ever think that the cause of this vanishing trade was brought about by their own neglect of the agriculture of their native land. They would, indeed, be surprised should this even be suggested to them. But such, nevertheless, is the case. They have built up a false doctrine that without exports this small island of Britain simply cannot live. They are without any panacea for re-establishing that trade, because they, too, recognize that the countries which were their one-time customers are now not only making for themselves the goods they once bought from us, but because of even better methods than we were won~ to employ can now beat us in open competition in those few remaining world markets which are, though in diminishing quantities, still buying goods from outside. So that the further we go, the more complex and insoluble becomes the economic problem which this country-and the universe-has got to face. In what way can agriculture contribute towards bringing order out of all this chaos? Can cosmos emerge out of chaos? Yes, definitely. Agriculture is the fundamental industry of the world and must be allowed to occupy a number-one position in the economy of all countries. The story of Chantry Farm, Chute, Wiltshire, points the way. We must begin by making one basic assumption: That a farm is analogous to a country and in matters of foodstuffs it must sooner or later become self-supporting. Like a country, again, it cannot entirely ignore trading with the outside world, for the farm requires tractors and implements, buildings and other things, which it cannot provide for itself. Food, however, must be produced at home, and any produce in excess of that required for the farm's own human population and its livestock can be sold in exchange for those implements and services which are the production of citizens not engaged in farming. The farm and the country, therefore, are in every respect analogous, and this simile must be borne in mind, firstly in order clearly to understand the message implicit in this farming story, and secondly in perceiving the practical application of this lesson to the rectification of the ills of the world which are entirely man made. After having farmed in Buckinghamshire and elsewhere for over twenty years, I eventually migrated at the age of forty-eight years to an estate of 750 acres on some of the highest land in Wiltshire. This property lies on the eastern escarpment of Salisbury Plain. It is situated in the parish of Chute and at its highest point lies some 829 feet above sea level. It is windswept and bleak. These features are somewhat redeemed by a southern aspect, but, on the other hand, are counter-balanced by the force of uninterrupted gales from the south-west whenever the wind comes from that direction. The land was more or less derelict, and in the records of title which I examined I found that a very large number of so-called farmers had occupied this plot of earth in the course of some sixty years, each of whom had been forced to leave the bleak, unprofitable farm because they were...

Share