THE PROBLEM, THE PEOPLE, THE PLACE 9 



food on the farm cut down that weekly food bill 

 enough to justify keeping our man on? 



It was worth a try. 



Our aim would be to produce as much of 

 everything that could be grown here as we could 

 consume at home and no more. Thus we should 

 have an edge on the ordinary commercial farmer, 

 for everything we used would be at a saving of 

 some part of the seventeen-dollar food budget. We 

 would in effect be selling our own produce to 

 ourselves at top retail prices; all the "spread" be- 

 tween producer and consumer, about which there 

 is so much tohu bohu, as the French call it, would 

 be clear profit for Medlock Farm. There would 

 be no thought of production for sale. I could see 

 no profit in selling. When we reached the point 

 in any agricultural activity where we were pro- 

 ducing all we could reasonably use at home we 

 would level off production, and stick to that rate. 

 Despite a lifetime in the country I still did not 

 know that is the one most difficult thing to do: 

 you can not regulate nature the way you would a 

 production line. 



How nearly we have succeeded in attaining our 

 objective this book will show. The results are sub- 

 stantial if not spectacular. After two years I began 

 to keep book on the enterprise; at first it was 

 enough to know we were obviously saving more 



