Introductory 



Dairying and Permanent Agriculture 



TO ESTABLISH the basis upon which this paper is 

 founded we cannot do better than to quote from "The 

 Holy Earth," by E. H. Bailey, what is said beginning 

 the chapter, "The Farmer's Relation" : 



"The surface of the earth is particularly within the care 

 of the farmer. He keeps it for his own sustenance and gain, 

 but his gain is also the gain of all the rest of us. At the best 

 he accumulates little to himself. The successful farmer is 

 the one who produces more than he needs for his support; 

 and the over-plus he does not keep; and, moreover, his own 

 needs are easily satisfied. It is of the utinost consequence 

 that the man next to the earth shall lead a fair and simple 

 life, for in riotous living he might halt many good supplies 

 that now go to his fellows. 



"It is a public duty so to train the farmer that he shall 

 appreciate his guardianship. He is engaged in a quasi-pub- 

 lic business. He really does not even own his land. He 

 does not take his land with him, but only the personal devel- 

 opment that he gains from it. He cannot annihilate his lands, 

 as another miht destroy all his belongings. He is the agent 

 or the representative of society to guard and subdue the 

 surface of the earth, and he is the agent of the divinity that 

 made it. He must exercise his dominion with due regard to 

 all these obligations. He is trustee. The productiveness of 

 the earth must in crease from generation to generation ; this 

 also is his obligation." 



That last statement is the fundamental : "The productive- 

 ness of the earth must increase from generation to genera- 

 tion ; this also is his obligation." This obligation works no 

 hardship on the dairy farmer ; on the contrary the more 

 closel}' he carries it out, the more money he himself will 

 make, and so much the better his farm will be when he leaves 

 it than when he takes it in the beginning. 



All this is simply saying that every farmer must return 

 to the soil each year, a little more fertility than he takes 

 from it. In no other way is he truly farming; he is simply 

 mining and on most of our farms too much mining has 

 already been done. We must now begin to farm. 



Page Eight 



