FARMING, PAST AND FUTURE 87 



of the former, however, assumes too much much too 

 much in my opinion. The work of the intensive 

 farmer cannot properly be compared with the avoca- 

 tion of the manufacturer. The man who has to pro- 

 duce the utmost from each of his fields has to have a 

 special knowledge of each of these divisions of land, 

 and, what is more, has to. impress his own individuality, 

 to a certain extent, on each of the men who are work- 

 ing, separately^ or at any rate in small parties, all 

 over the land. The thing is quite as special as, say, 

 dentistry. False teeth may, we believe, be manu- 

 factured by the pound, yet it is customary, and I 

 think it is likely that it will remain customary, to look 

 upon the dentist as a professional man. The dentist 

 has to combine knowledge of his individual patient 

 with his general medical and engineering ability, and 

 crown all three with manipulative* skill. So with the 

 large farmer; he requires the knowledge of a collec- 

 tion of subjects, forming a conglomerate of learning 

 at least equivalent to that required from many men 

 of high professional standing. Yet, with all this, his 

 capacity as a man of business must be great enough 

 to bind all his mental faculties into one definite weapon 

 of attack against his weed enemies. And, while he is 

 so fighting to conquer them, he must further contrive 

 to induce the great forces of nature to produce his 

 own and his fellows' food to the greatest possible 

 amount; for if he does less he cannot be said to carry 

 on intensive farming. When all this is realized an 

 industrial farm of 5000 acres, pushed to produce its 

 utmost, seems quite beyond the capacity of any but 

 the very exceptional man. 



The physical limitation of the ordinary man alone 

 seems to make the enterprise impossible. In this 

 small island country of ours it cannot be expected that 

 such a farm would consist of less than 125 fields. 



