CHAPTER V 

 FARMING THAT IS NOT FARMING 



THERE has been developed in America, gradually but 

 very steadily, an interest in the soil that is not farming 

 in the older or ordinary sense of the word. It might 

 be called the " twilight zone " between farm and city. 

 It has to do with the food production in some measure, 

 but its greatest significance arises from quite other as- 

 pects and influences. Heretofore this twilight zone 

 has not been of very much interest to the farmer. In- 

 deed he has been inclined to treat it as something of a 

 joke. He has enjoyed the thought of the city dweller 

 fussing with a few vegetables and calling it farming. 

 In a few cases where it has become a factor in produc- 

 tion, the farmer has perhaps been moved to oppose it. 

 But the war has brought out in a stronger light this new 

 interest. The " war gardens " have grown apace. 

 There have been millions of them. Now that the war 

 is over, most of them will be discontinued, but many 

 will persist, and some aspects of these war ventures 

 will become important. In fact, we must recognize 

 that in this twilight zone there is a very important field 

 of effort in which the soil plays a large part. The 

 farmer ought to be sympathetic toward it. He can 

 afford on the whole to ignore the question of its effect 

 on the prices of his products, because its influence is not 

 likely to be very detrimental to him, while its develop- 

 ment means so much for humanity that it ought to en- 



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