A NEW DOMESDAY BOOK
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—Mr. Lloyd George's account of the work done by Pro- fessor Stapledon for the Welsh sheep pastures, and his tren- chant plea for a new land audit, should arouse great interest.
Throughout the countryside one sees everywhere land rich in food-growing potentialities that for reasons obscure to the passer-by are largely out of cultivation. All that is needed for the transformation of these moribund farms into rich food-bearing acres are scientific methods of cultivation, re- sourcefulness, vision and cheap transport to appropriate markets.
As remarkable as Professor Stapledon's work in Wales is the work being carried out on the rich, -low-lying land of Lin- colnshire by Captain R. G. M. Wilson, R.E. In 1932 Captain Wilson acquired 800 acres of land at Surflect and began an experiment in intensive cultivation that combined Dutch and French methods with the well-known Indore Compost System worked out by Sir Albert Howard, late Director of the Institute of Plant Industry, Indore. Four years ago three men and a boy were sufficient to " work " this parcel of land. When I
visited it two weeks ago I found between eighty and a hundred men and women in full-time employment upon it.
It is obvious that in such experiments as those of Professor Stapledon and Captain Wilson lie the seeds of an agricultural revolution. Yet what is being done at Surfleet is as old as husbandry itself ; for it consists in the application of this simple proposition :., that what is: taken from any given piece of land must be returned to it. The composts, the only fertilising agents used, are composed of stable manure, plus all manner of vegetable waste from the land.
The result, after four years, is the production of crops truly remarkable for quantity, colour, flavour and freedom from disease.
The transformation of this single farm evokes a vision of what vast areas of 'agricultural lands might be, namely, a larder upon which the country can draw for food in times Of peace and can depend for life itself in the event of War.—
I am, Sir, yours, &c.,
GEORGE GODWIN.
16 Berkeley Square, L
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