RURAL ECONOMY Sir,—I am sorry that your contributor, Sir William
_Beach Thomas, has not taken the opportunity which I gave him of withdrawing his gross misrepresentations of my views on agriculture and rural life. Instead, he refers to my " latest book which frankly horrified" him in support of what he said. My latest book is Problems of the Countryside (Cambridge University Press) published in 1945 and reprinted in 1946, and I regret to have to say that there is not a single word of truth in anything which Sir William says about it. There is no mention anywhere of the need for 6,000-acre farms. So far from condemning small holdings, the tradi- tional peasant farmer is mentioned sympathetically, with proposals for helping him. It is not proposed anywhere that villages should be turned into towns equipped with cinemas and theatres. The assertion that " farm workers are urged to seek their pleasure in their leisure rather than in their working hours " is equally a pure fabrication. Finally, I am not the leader of any cult.—Yours truly, The Malt House, Blewbury, Didcot, Berks. C. S. ORWIN.
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