16 FARMING ON FACTORY LINES 



time (the ' ' nineties ' ') the outlook of agriculture was 

 certainly very dismal, every fibre of my being 

 revolted against the idea of leaving the land. Briefly, 

 I decided to equip myself with an agricultural 

 education. I entered a college for this purpose, 

 applying myself vigorously to my studies, and after 

 four years' work I realised why, by tacit consent, 

 agriculturists are classified as " scientific " or 

 lt practical." 



I learned much about agricultural science — the 

 practical knowledge I had already before I entered 

 the college — but the chief truth I acquired was that 

 the agricultural scientists, with a few rare exceptions, 

 had not sufficient practical knowledge to realise the 

 importance of their own scientific teachings!! 



SCIENCE AND PRACTICE 



On the other hand, to the practical farmer, science, 

 in any shape or form, was a closed book — something 

 to be ridiculed. To him the exponents of science 

 were " book and blackboard farmers," men who, 

 under the most favourable circumstances, could not 

 make a farm pay. I also learned, that, neither the 

 scientist nor the practical man had even touched the 

 fringe of agricultural economics, or attempted to 

 apply business methods to our greatest industry. 



Is it not extraordinary to realise, as the inimitable 

 author of " the Chronicles of a Clay Farm " puts it, 

 that we " are only just beginning to recognise the 

 last of human sciences in the first of human arts "? 



It would not be, in any way, difficult for anyone 

 familiar with agriculture in these countries to give 

 extensive illustrations of the truth of the old 

 chronicler's dictum. After completing my college 

 studies I, at all events, decided to make an attempt 



