26 OCTOBER 1934, Page 16

Capital Needs

The farming aspirants are almost exclusively male, and it must be said at once that it is next door to impossible to succeed without a certain capital. This has always been understood by professional farmers. Groups of young men from the colleges have lately tried to run farms with no more capital than a hundred pounds or two apiece ; and by doing all the work themselves they have kept afloat ; but have hardly earned a labourer's wage. In such ventures, and some others, the most successful have been the best engineers. There is certainly scope for experts in farm machinery, whether they work for themselves or for someone else. Engineering knowledge and ingenuity are probably of more practical use than either botany or biology or chemistry.