Books on Husbandry
An utterly surprising number of books on the subject of husbandry have recently been published and, what is more, bought. Personally, I have read a baker's dozen during the year. They concern such experiences as the reclamation of derelict land—in the Fens as in Lincolnshire and Wiltshire uplands ; modern machinery and Methods, market gardening as contrasted with extensive farming, the use of compost and misuse of artificials, and so on ; but a number are reminiscent, and what is perhaps surprising in this class is that the newest theories are seen to differ in no essential respect from the old. This is especially marked in regard to the Ley on which Professor Stapleton and the best of modern critics rely. The Ley, though it has become an almost household word only of late, is an old and trusted stand-by. Incidentally it is a famous weed-killer; and the extension of grain farming during the war has had this drawback that it has incalculably increased the spread of annual weeds. Years ago, on a visit to the great agricultural station outside Montreal, that famous farmer, Professor Robertson, showed me how weeds were driving out the prairie farmers who believed in continuous wheat growing. Millions of acres were going out of cultivation—he foretold—unless proper rotations were practised.
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