ARABLE OR GRASS? 



living must lay his farm down to grass and either 

 have a flock of sheep with a dog, or he must have a 

 herd of cows with a milking bale, prepare ensilage 

 and make hay to turn out milk. 



Assume for a moment that the farming com- 

 munity had followed this line of thought to its 

 fullest extent, a pretty mess the country would 

 have found itself in at the opening of this second 

 war. Farm equipment broken up, labour gone, 

 and what is more fatal than every other loss that 

 we can add to the list, arable farming sense relegated 

 to the melting-pot. 



Was it right to revert to the days mentioned in 

 the Old Testament when Joseph's brethren fed 

 their flocks in Shechem, or shall we draw an earlier 

 analogy by referring to the days when Adam left 

 the Garden of Eden ? Why did he leave ? Was it 

 not that he took to romancing rather than culti- 

 vating his garden ? I am not suggesting that he 

 was ill-advised to be the first man (so it is recorded) 

 to introduce a little romance into life, but I do think 

 he might have made an effort to bring off" a 

 compromise. 



During the last twenty-five years I recall men who 

 launched out into this direct opposite to cultivation 

 by laying whole farms down to grass. Where it 

 was done on a vast scale no doubt it has been 

 very successful, but one regrets that some men have 

 been swept from the scene of action by so doing. 

 I am not suggesting that this style of farming 

 presented no credit balance, as I say on a large scale 

 it may, but on a small scale the balance is so small 



69 F 



