16 JUNE 1950, Page 28

Introduction to Farming Both Sides of the Road. By S.

Rogerson and C. Tunnicliffe.

(Collins. 21s.)

THE end of petrol-rationing may make this book something of a public danger, for it is likely to turn all its readers into either farmers or would-be farmers. And farmers of either sort are poorish motorists ; they are so busy farming the fields over the hedge- rows that they have hardly half an eye to spare for the road traffic. Which is merely one way of saying that in Both Sides of the Road Messrs. Rogerson and Tunnicliffe have succeeded splendidly. The mixture is just right—a text that is not a dry-as-dust technical treatise but an easy-to-read fascinating story, in which every technical reference is correct ; illustrations that are not the product of some artist's imagination, but charming and recognisable pictures of farm- ing and the countryside as they really are. Never have writer and illustrator combined more happily to do justice to British agriculture.

It is not a book for the agricultural expert, but rather for people of any age who sincerely wish to know more about what is happen- ing on both sides of the roads they travel. Indeed, here is the ideal farming text-book ; one that should be used in every school in Britain, especially in town schools. For it is the children who are now being educated in our big industrial towns who, by their greater voting power, will decide the fate of farming in the near future. Both Sides of the Road will set them well on the way to learning something sound concerning the great industry they will one