CHAPTER II 



WHAT FARMERS HAVE TO REALISE 



Before proceeding to describe the system or the 

 advantages of Continuous Cropping it may not be out 

 of place here to make a general survey of the pre- 

 sent agricultural position, and, incidentally, to 

 attempt a defence of the farmer, whom well- 

 intentioned, but ill-informed, people seem bent on 

 vilifying at the present time. 



Many columns of the Press at the time of the 

 writing of this book are being devoted to the 

 question of food production. From all sides demands 

 are being poured out for an immediate increase in 

 the supplies of home-grown food or, in other words, 

 for an increase in our arable area. The line of 

 demarcation between tragedy and comedy is never 

 very well defined, but to anyone like the writer, who 

 for years has been preaching and (will some of the 

 reviewers of my previous books please note?) also 

 practising a revival of arable farming — these out- 

 pourings are occasionally, in spite of their tragic 

 cause, almost comic. 



Only a few years ago, a daily paper, which claims 

 to be the most influential paper in Ireland, denounced 

 the greater production of food as likely to cause a 

 slump and result in low prices. Indeed, one might, 

 at one time, scan hundreds of columns in the Press, 

 and read nothing of greater agricultural importance 

 than accounts of lambs being born with more than 



