Imperial Agriculture
Agricultural Progress, .Vol. VI., 1929. (Penn. 58.) Heather, Hay, Houses, Health. By the Authbr of Garden First in Land Development (Sutton and Co., Boscombe. 2s.)
LrrrnE they know of the British Empire who know little of its crops ; and if any good patriot desires to fill up any bo- tanical and economic gap in his knowledge he would do well to read Sir John Russell's contribution to Agricultural Progress. It deals chiefly with facts ; and the cardinal fact is that the British Empire may fulfil the Aristotelian ideal and be wholly " self-sufficing," if the knowledge gathered here, there and everywhere is properly pooled. Not only can we supply one another's needs : we can cure one another's maladies and perfect one another's theories. The conference of 1927— attended even by little places such as Pemba and Fiji—set a new ambition afoot ; and as one step towards practical action eight Imperial bureaux of information, which are also research stations, have been or are being established in Britain. Houses are in being where, by glass, heat, light, and moisture, any climate in the world may be imitated to suit any bug, bacillus, fungus, or plant that may be giving trouble to any farmer in any part of the Empire. The journal to which Sir John Russell makes his suggestive contribution is issued by the Agricultural Education Association, which has a great future before it. May the reviewer suggest that those concerned with agricultural machinery might benefit by attention :to its propaganda ? We have missed many of our natural markets in such tools by mere ignorance of the needs of other parts of the world.
A great deal of good work is being done by many agencies in publishing and so pooling special knowledge : and among the most practical books by specialists are the manuals issued by the Farmer and Stockbreeder. The latest of these is a model of condensed information. The fault indeed is excess of con- densation ; and initial historical sketches are actually mis- leading for this reason, as, for example, in the reference to the origin of wheat and barley, and their respective antiquity. In an appreciation of Sir Roland Biffen's work the essential fact is his increase not of the yield but of the strength of English wheats. Again, it is absurd to discuss hemp purely from the point of view of the seed and not at all of the fibre. However, the general utility of the book is not affected. There is an admirable chapter on sugar beet cultivation,' with a special plea for further and closer attention to the by-products —the tops and the pulp ; and a well-deserved tribute is paid to the excellence of English-made machinery. The one omission is an absence of reference to the Oxford inventions and discoveries on the drying of the root. They may prove crucial.
Dr. Bernard Dyer, who has made notable contribu- tions to the extension of scientific knowledge, contributes a very informative preface to a most amateurish, and yet most interesting account of an experiment in reclamation. The subject is always absorbing ; and this tale of a twenty years' experiment on a bare Hampshire heath is not less important because the gay and unprofessional author indulges in in- different jokes, autobiographical inconsequences, and light- hearted chattering's. The thing that matters is that two expe- rimenters, with a fine ideal as inipiration, at to work to make the desert flourish as the rose ; and in the sequel converted a bit of waste into very fertile acres. In the course of the long struggle they made their own useful discoveries on a variety of subjects : on fencing and tree-stump eradication, on sub- sailing, on special instruments, on keeping poultry and rabbits, on concrete cottages, on making roads ; even on the best ways of dealing with a railway company and on church extension ! The discursive babbling is connected by a con- sistent faith in the value of reclamation. In the mechanics of this art they made real progress. By means of a very cheap and rough-and-ready plough of home design they succeeded in ploughing and embroiling nearly half an acre a day of virgin ground, to a depth of two feet without turning down the top spit of earth. If this feat is as authentic as it sounds it is of some real natural importance. It _is interesting that the author has a deep enthusiasm for the derating clauses of the Local Government Act on the ground that they will greatly encourage reclamation ; and the point which has not hitherto been stressed is worth notice.
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