THE SUBSTANCE OF SOIL SIR,—I should like to reply very
briefly to the interesting letter of Mr. Geoffrey Makin in your issue of February 25th, who suggests that Commander Bowles has furnished no evidence in favour of the views he so tersely set out in The Spectator of February 18th. This was not possible in the limits of a letter.
The scientific evidence, on which is based the thesis that a fertile soil means healthy crops, healthy live stock, and last but not least, healthy human beings, has been summed up in three recent books: (t) An Agricultural Testament (Oxford University Press) ; (2) The Living Soil (Faber and Faber) and (3) The Compost Gardener (Titus Wilson, Kendal). Additional information is recorded in the News Letter on Compost, published three times a year by the Cheshire Panel doctors at Holmes Chapel near Crewe. A perusal of these documents will show that the above thesis rests on a firm foundation of new knowledge.
This new knowledge has already been translated into successful practice. All over the world the pioneers engaged in the revolution of the great plantation industries, of farming, fruit and vegetable growing, as well as gardening, are producing examples without end which prove that the adoption of Nature's great law of return is more profitable than the use of chemicals, which are invariably followed by antidote chemicals such as poison sprays for saving the crop and serums and vaccines for keeping the live stock alive. Further, the nutritive value of the produce grown on compost is superior to that obtained by chemicals alone or by chemicals supplemented by humus. The results, now coming forward in a growing torrent, are being published in the only really effective manner—they are being written on the land itself. Each centre is soon followed by the creation of a compost-minded community. The move- ment has long passed the laboratory and small plot stages: it has reached the profit and loss account.
To show Mr. Makin what is afoot I should need the magic carpet. Instead I can only attempt a brief summary. Humus has vanquished chemicals which are quite unnecessary: the mechanisation of the manure and compost heaps has been accomplished: the conversion of all the wastes of the town into humus is in full swing in South Africa : the pioneers in Great Britain are rapidly solving similar problems: there is going to be no shortage of humus for the reform of British Agri- culture. The day is rapidly approaching when the people of this country will enter into their birthright—the fresh produce of fertile soil. When this takes place England will be born .again: our island will be converted into a well-found fortress capable of facing the world in arms. The developments which started in Tudor times and continued into the last century were the natural consequence of the reform of agriculture which followed the Black Death and the collapse of the Feudal System. The new era that is coming will rival if not excel the greatest days of
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