Good Husbandry
SIR GEORGE STAPLEDON'S latest book could scarcely have come at a more opportune moment Now, when the agricultural policy of this country is concentrated upon production, and upon production only, it is more than ever necessary that an authoritative voice should speak out and remind us that, whatever emergency methods we may be driven to adopt for the moment, the prime fact must never be lost sight of that the land is a trust on all of us, townsman and countryman alike, and that farming is a way of life as well as a means of livelihood. "The culture of a nation is reflected in, and is largely an outcome of, the manner in which it uses and treats its land-surface."
Nobody is more entitled to remind us of this fundamental fact than Sir George Stapledon. As an agricultural scientist, he has con- sistently sought to guide our island agriculture into wiser ways, by advocating a system of ley-farming that will take the plough in ordered sequence around the whole farm. That this should have earned him little but scorn in most quarters counts for nothing with him now ; he has lived to see that policy vindicated—and in any case he is too busy helping us to keep alive today to ponder on past neglect, or to waste time in saying " I told you so." It is to be hoped, therefore, that The Way of the Land will not only be read by farmers, but by everybody who is conscious of his re- sponsibility as a citizen at this turning-point in our history. Much of the book is technical: lectures at Aberystwyth, for instance, and addresses to such bodies as the British Association for the Advance- ment of Science. But a lecturer who implores his agricultural students to read poetry, and who himself quotes T. S. Eliot and D. H. Lawrence is not a narrow specialist. He is a man of imagina- tion. Indeed, " we must carry our researches into the realm of things spiritual," as he says, " and seek to develop a technique that will enable us to avail ourselves to the full of our great mani-
festation of potentiality—imagination." It is this imaginative, spiritual approach to the land that has at last won Sir George Stapledon widespread admiration. Typically he tells his students that "people ought to spend just as much time seriously contem- plating as learning." The war has taught us, bitterly enough, the necessity for a com- pletely new attitude to agriculture in this country. We have begun to realise, happily before it is too late, that the prospect of a plentiful supply of foods from overseas is no reason for shirking the task of building up a maximum husbandry at home ; that a neglected agriculture is as a rotten core in even the most industralised community ; and that unless our rural life is served with the necessary amenities and facilities, " the driving force behind the English character will be lost to our race." In other words, it is not enough to appreciate, under the panic influence of war, the value of the land and of the farmer as a safeguard against starvation. With the return of peace, that practical appreciation, unless it has a spiritual foundation, will all too readily be forgotten. Sir George Stapledon's tireless plea for a system of ley-farming, whereby clovers and grasses are sown as rotational crops, is based on the vital
necessity for bringing our land back into good heart—and a healthy land is a healthier people.
There is nothing of the backwood-looker in Sir George Staple- don. Progress, he says, must always come before preservation: a courageous and salutary piece of advice from his address to a certain branch of the C.P.R.E. Nevertheless, his spiritual approach enables him to see that progress does not necessarily consist in imposing on agriculture those large-scale factory methods which some of our more heady planners seem to have in mind. The " health and happiness of individuals " must never be lost sight of. Realising this, he can dare to say that "the small farmer in backivard districts, if only England knew it, is still the backbone of England, for in him still glows the yeoman spirit, starved though it be for want of working capital, and undermined by the discontent of his children." And it is to bring back this yeoman spirit—the founda- tion of quality in our agriculture and the source of that healthy stock upon which our towns need to draw continually—that we must strive as the wisest outcome of the farming revolution that has been thrust upon us by this war. In his work as in his words., Sir George Stapledon provides the passionate inspiration for such
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