1 1 8 mature Studies in Berkshire. 



the fertility of the soil and its return to our hands, we 

 should be within a month of absolute starvation. 

 For when we approach the harvest, the world's barrel 

 of flour is almost gone, and there are no storehouses 

 whence it may be replenished, save the deep, rich 

 granaries of the earth, — the cornfields of this world. 

 Let universal drought burn these harvests that are 

 ripening ; let floods drown them ; let mildew blight, 

 or insects devour, — and before we could plant and 

 ripen another there would not be left enough people 

 to reap it and gather it into barns. 



It is only as we realise the primary importance of 

 the soil and its products that we can perceive how 

 every other industry in life depends upon the farmer. 

 Let him drop his spade, and the carpenter must let 

 fall his saw, the smith his hammer, the soldier his 

 sword, the weaver his shuttle, the writer his pen, 

 the seamstress her needle. Every other workman on 

 earth looks to the farmer for the work to go on or 

 stop. If the farmer will not give him his meals, he 

 cannot work, either for self or for others. Nay, 

 more, he shall lack not merely the strength for his 

 work, but the material for it as well. Think how 

 many of the industries of this life have to do with 

 the raw material which is the product of the farmer's 

 toil. The flour-mill, the cotton-mill, the woollen-mill, 

 the sugar-refinery, the brewery, alas ! and the distil- 

 lery too, the baker, the grocer, the confectioner, — 

 why these are but a hint of the vast army of people 

 whose "job " would stop if the farmer failed to send 



