THE NATURAL LIFE 15 



IV 



THE NATURAL LIFE 



Before we examine the fundamental causes of the fact 

 that British farmers tend to become less and less 

 growers of wheat and more and more stock-raisers and 

 dairy-farmers, thus producing less of the essential food 

 of the people, let us look at some incidental aspects of 

 British agriculture. These aspects are very important, 

 for taken together they account for one of the most 

 formidable ironies in our national life. They explain 

 why the most beautiful and natural, and in the best 

 sense wealth-giving, means by which a man can earn 

 a living has become despised and avoided. They 

 explain why the exodus from the country to the towns 

 has long been the feature of industrial life. Without 

 appreciating these aspects we cannot understand the 

 nature of our problem. 



On September 21st, 1870, while the guns of the 

 Franco-German War were thundering in France, 

 Charles Kingsley wrote these lines : 



Speak low, speak little ; who may sing 

 While yonder cannon-thunders boom ? 



Watch, shuddering, what each day may bring : 

 Nor pipe amid the crack of doom. 



And yet — the pines sing overhead, 



The robins by the alder-pool. 

 The bees about the garden-bed. 



The children dancing home from school. 



And ever at the loom of Birth, 



The mighty Mother weaves and sings : 



She weaves — fresh robes for mangled earth. 

 She sings — fresh hopes for desperate things. 



