COUNTRY LIFE
NO one has put more effectual energy into the means of reviving-food production in Europe than Sir John Russell, just now the DireCtor of Rothamsted. Everyone will regret that ill-health has prevented hini for a while from doing the hard work in which he has always rejoiced. Never- theless he has found tithe and •energy to complete a book that gives a masterly survey of thee impending problems of British husbandry (Agri-
culture Today and . Tomorrow, Michael Joseph,. 8s. 6d.) ; and his Own conclusion, founded in part on the evidence of his learned and practical team of co-operators, is a little masterpiece of clear thinking. In the years when English farming was in its lowest power, cheap wheat poured in because farmers (so to call them) on the American continent were denuding their farms of fertility. Our market persuaded them to cash out their capital of fertility. That is all over. Their problem now is restitution of fertility ; but still British farming is in many essentials conditioned by agriculture in other countries, especially (Sir John holds) tropical and semi-tropical farming. How and why cannot be even sug- gested in a paragraph ; but this group of experts tends to believe in English tradition and quite definitely rejects the heresy to which for the moment, it seems, both Oxford and Cambridge schools are devoted The rapid invention of machines suitable for moderately small farms—and the standard farm within Britain is not more than 30o acres—will essentially assist the traditionalists. Farming will remain "a way of life," not a soul- less factory.
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