Not so long since a group of these more eminent
pioneers collected together at Chelmsford (where flourishes a.very wise and enterprising farming institution) in order to pool their ex- periences. If we were not a community hopelessly urban in mental outlook the newspapers would have hailed this meeting of " the Big Six," or some such favoured headline, as a national event of the highest economic and indeed scientific importance. They represented the neighbourhood of Eves- ham, of Andover, of Hayling Island, and the Isle of Wight ; of Dagenham, and of parts of Hampshire and Gloucestershire. They represented real genius and, be it said, success in a time of deepest depression. They are no quacks, desiring to keep secret for their own purposes the discoveries and inventions they have made. All these are open to the public and imitation is welcomed, though it is, of course, not easy to imitate genius. Still there is common knowledge in their pooled information ; and what stands out is their dependence on engineering skill. On each farm some neat device sets the flourish on the general wisdom and energy. Mechanization is not a formal system, not the mere sub- stitution of a Marshall tractor or a Clayton harvester-thresher or a Ransome multiple plough or even a Hosier bail for a team of shire horses. It is the inventive engineering mind applied to production from the factory of the land. There certainly never was a time even in the days of Coke of Norfolk or " Turnip Townshend " when so much hard and good thinking was concentrated on the work of the farm.
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