GROW YOUR OWN FOOD.
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—" Kynmon," in your issue of May 10th, greets with a mild approval (much harder to meet than -any attack) my letter advocating a sustained, scientific attempt to force a way out from the fundamental impasse confronting modern industrial society. Under industrialism the smooth working of the economic machinery is not attainable. It is subject to hitches, e.g., strikes, lock-outs, gluts on the market, financial crises, wars, &c. These ever-increasing hitches are the source of unrest. They deprive the working man of his income. They cut off his supplies. The natural solution is plainly to put the man in a position to furnish these supplies for himself, and thus to set him free from this enslavement to a pay-envelope. And so I said let Labour be provided with a second ,string to its bow. But let the working man's "second string " be, not an additional way of making money, but a method of making food. Let every industrial worker who wishes it have the facilities at hand for devoting part of every working day to the task of directly creating, from a piece of soil which he owns, the actual food he requires for his own table ; while at the same time still persevering to work for a wage in industry as long as ever there is work and a wage for him. And I suggested that we should mobilize Science to render this thing possible. "Present us," I said in effect, "with just the best scheme the conditions would permit a man to follow, who wished to derive a,- maximum of nourishment from a minimum of soil at least cost in labour and time." And what impresses me is not the fact that " Kynmon " has found it won't do. I am not impressed by that any more than. I would be impressed by a man who should say to all the scientists now engaged on cancer research, "I have tried this cancer-curing and found it won't do." What does impress and encourage me is the fact that " Kyrunon " has actually tried. There. are thousands like " Kynmon " in that respect. It is already being tried in similar tentative ways all over the world. It is so obviously the line of solution that it is bound to be tried more and more, as the Nemesis of industrialism advances. And if only sufficient people would try it, and Science could be got to focus upon it, the issues are so vast that neither dyspepsia nor the recalcitrance of boys, nor the predilection of some people for opening tins will be allowed to stand in the way once it is clearly seen that social salvation lies along that road. I cannot help thinking it a pity, however, that " Kyamon " should associate living on what you grow with- living on Spartan fare. I wonder if it would not be possible to per- suade him—and the many others who possibly make the same assunantion as he does—actually to procure a copy of Cily
Homes on Country Lanes (Macmillan) and begin at page 167?
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