The soil and its products : the foods we eat versus life-giving foods

Baker, Charles Alma, University Press, Glasgow, 1938

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Title: The soil and its products : the foods we eat versus life-giving foods

Author: Baker, Charles Alma

Published: University Press, Glasgow, 1938

With the Author’s Compliments

MEMORANDUM

The Soil and Its Products

THE FOODS WE EAT

versus

LIFE-GIVING FOODS

By C. ALMA BAKER, C.B.E.

Batu Gajah

Perak

Federated Malay States

27th June, 1938

Former Publications by the Author:

" A Colonial's Appeal to the Electors of England " London,

(Canvassing Rotherhithe for Cumming Macdona, then Conservative candidate.) 1900.

" Instructions Rubber Planting " 1903.

" Australian and Malayan Battleplane Souvenir " 1914-1918. Published 1920.

"Carry On" (the future service of aircraft). Addition to Battleplane Souvenir. 1920.

" Training of Horses for Circus and Polo " 1922. " Facts Relating to New Scientific Discoveries Concerning

Life-Giving Foods " 1923.

" Singapore Base and the Defence of the Pacific " 1934.

" Rough Guide to New Zealand Big Game Fishing " 1937.

In Preparation

" Plantation Rubber; Vital Factors concerning its Growth Maintenance and Production."

DEDICATION

IN THE TWILIGHT OF A LONG AND FULL LIFE, I DEDICATE TO THE EMPIRE AND TO MANKIND, THIS MEMORANDUM " THE SOIL AND ITS PRODUCTS"— THE IMPRESSIONS COVERING MANY YEARS OF PERSONAL EXPERIMENTS IN SOIL PROBLEMS IN OUTLYING PARTS OF THE EMPIRE.

THE SOIL

The Fundamental Problem of Natural Health and Existence of Plant, Animal and Man.

As the Soil, so its Products,

So the Blood-stream, so the Body,

So Intellect and Intelligence,

So the Progeny.

It is impossible to deal in any useful way with this most vital subject by considering only the material world in Nature's scheme of plant growth, as many unseen forces and influences — some of which I have endeavoured herein to indicate —are deeply involved in every seed grown.

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Preface

Before the many details enumerated in this Memorandum are read, I desire to give this short outline of its content.

I have dealt with the land and its products for nearly half a century, and have vainly tried throughout the years to discover amongst the numerous manuring and fertilizing substances advocated from time to time, even one wholly satisfactory form or system that would enable disease-free plant and animal life to be produced and maintained.

Unfortunately none of my former endeavours gave the desired results, but subsequently two rays of light illuminated some of the hitherto obscure causes of soil infertility, and also possibly, the incubator of our many diseases, ill-health, and ailments, continuously hampering the social, political, and economic development of mankind.

The two systems of agriculture that gave me hope of improving the health of soil, plant, animal, and man came before the public a few years ago, in the methods of " Dynamic Agriculture ", and the " Indore " Process.

Both systems aim at a living soil, but in the " Indore ” Process its originator makes no direct claim to enlist the vital interplay of the unseen influences and forces surrounding all life on earth ; while the originator of " Dynamic Agriculture ” definitely contends that the conscious enlistment of such influence and forces by practical measures is absolutely essential for the healthy development of all living organisms.

The study and practice of the principles of the above two systems of agriculture have impelled me to write this Memorandum. I therefore have appealed to all Governments to investigate the influences of manurial substances and systems upon the fertility of the soil and the nutritional value of its products.

The World Press to-day is rife with complaints and enquiries regarding the reduced fertility of the land, and the lessening value of its products, and these, from an unbalanced soil axe no longer immune from creating disease.

Our Hospitals, Nursing Homes, and Mental Institutions provide ample evidence of the daily increase of disease in human life.

Is the remedy for this dreadful state of affairs to be left to the working farmer whose time is fully occupied with the everlasting unsatisfactory efforts by trial and costly error to produce a paying crop to support himself, his family, and those he employs, with little or no knowledge of the health or disease-spreading qualities of the crops he harvests, —or will the Governments in whose hands are the care of the soil, and the health of its people, fully honour the great trust of which they are the custodians?

Special Appeal to the Members of the Imperial Parliaments

It has been my strenuous endeavour throughout this Memorandum to draw the attention, the sympathy, and the active interest and help, of all Members of our Imperial Parliaments to the unhealthy denatured state of our soils, and the food products obtained from them.

I appeal with all due diffidence to those empowered to legislate for the safety nationally, socially, and financially (in all of which the health of the people and the true fertility of the soil plays a vital and inseparable part) for direct guidance to all for correct means by which our depleted soils can again be turned into a living entity for the production of life-giving foods, instead of the present disease and death-producing ones.

I make this earnest appeal on behalf of all tillers of the soil, and on behalf of the many millions of the consumers of their products.

Every year's delay adds to the toll taken by the Law of Inertia in sickness, disease, and death in plant, animal, and man.

After reading this Memorandum, will any be able to deny that the time is overdue for a definite official answer to the points raised?

Can any unselfish, and fair-minded man or woman, elected to Parliament to further the well-being of the community, consider their duty done—if only to the Empire—by neglecting to do their utmost towards obtaining for all, definite knowledge for the restoration of a living soil, and natural healthy foods ; which must mean, when obtained, a much higher degree than at present of health, prosperity, and happiness?

Natural health combats disease!

Natural health is obtained only from natural healthy food plants from natural living fertile soils.

Who, in his senses would attempt to produce bricks for building houses from clays of faulty ingredients?

Why are workers of the soil allowed without hindrance to produce materials for building human bodies out of every kind of faulty soil?

The living fertility of the Earth's soil in its cultivatable portions, has consistently produced natural healthy food-plants, using natural animal materials for its preservation, throughout the centuries, up to a few years ago.

If we allow ourselves to visualise what must happen even in a few hundred years, and try to picture what the state of the fertility of the Earth's soils under the present form of cultivation will be from erosion and disintegration through little or no plant covering, together

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with the lack of live manurial agencies, the aspect to the mind is anDallintr. .

This applies not only to the soil, but truly to the condition of all life that mav survive.

What higher Body is there than the Members of our Houses ot Representatives, and their Cabinets, to appeal to for true guidance? We all await your answer.

" Out of the Present the Future is born.

The Soil and its Products

It is with the greatest diffidence I submit to those in charge of the Nation's health and agriculture the comments as set out in this Memorandum, on points which appear to me to be inseparably connected with the soil and its products.

I however feel very strongly that the fundamental problems I am now submitting to my own authorities go far beyond the boundaries of our National frontiers, and are as world-wide as the air and soil that surround the earth. I say this, because all humanity desires to have good natural health—but who is there to tell us how to achieve this end? .

I wish to state emphatically, that I do not write this Memorandum in any carping spirit as I lay no claim to any scientific attainment or to scientific investigations. Intentionally, I have made no direct quotations in this Memorandum, as its subject-matter has arisen from numerous sources coupled with my own experiences.

I offer this Memorandum trusting it will be taken by those who care to read it, as an earnest and unbiased attempt to enlist the sympathies not onlv of those who are in charge of the health and the agriculture of the people, and the soils of the various parts of the Empire, but in addition the sympathies of all those who deal with the soil-

In no way do I wish to hurt the susceptibilities, or financial undertakings of any individual or group.

I am merelv an observer of the incidents of life as they appear before me in my personal dealings of some fifty years with the soil and its products, as in the cultivation of rubber in Malaya, and in the cultivation of my pastures in New Zealand for cattle, sheep, and wool production.

I have no financial interests whatever in the undertakings of any men or any companies.

My life" has been mostly spent in the outlying parts of the Empire, dealing with soils and their products.

I have been, and still am, incessant in my search after fundamental facts concerning the activities of life as far as I am allowed to know them.

In man two worlds meet, one is open to our senses, one is unseen. The world which is open to our senses is the realm of matter permeated with life, the unseen world is the realm of life itself. In the true sense a human being is only he who strives for consciousness of both these worlds. We have to do so all the more as we in every moment of our life meet in the world open to our senses the effect of the unseen

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world. To limit ourselves in our search for truth to the world of the senses would mean that we shall never reach the truth. Investigation of the unseen world, the world of qualities as opposed to the world of quantities accessible to our senses, will require, however, new and wider methods but they can be just as exact as methods used in the investigation of the material world.

We must study nature as a whole, not only the material side. Life can only be understood if we approach the " unseen " element with the same clearness as we study the world of substances. Such considerations are before me when I look at the material link between man and nature around him ; the earth on which he exists and the products of this earth which he consumes and through which he is enabled to exist.

EXACT KNOWLEDGE OF MAN'S REQUIREMENTS FOR NATURAL HEALTH FROM THE THREE LOWER KINGDOMS OF NATURE

Exact detailed knowledge is required to-day by all, as to what is essential for man to obtain from the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms, together with such other factors and influences as are profoundh' involved in the existence and health of mankind, and of other life on earth.

When these fundamental principles are known, then the critical examination and analyses of soils and their products, will provide definite knowledge of any shortcomings in the foodstuffs now sold for human consumption. We shall understand better, too, the influence the constituents of soils have in the production of unwholesome imitations of our common food products. Clear indications will result as to what is necessary to re-establish a truly living fertile soil for the production of foodstuffs of full nutritional and biological value for humans and animals.

From the outset however it must be understood that research must not restrict itself to quantitative aspects. The very nature of what has to be investigated shows that analytical methods will give information about the material side only, while synthesis is needed to give the true position of living soils and living products which man and beast have to consume.

Analysis, by its very nature, must always exclude life, while true synthesis exists only in the sphere of life. The term " Synthesis" is used in this paper to denote the intricate workings and qualities of all life on earth, and must not be understood to be a mere adding up of analytical, and therefore, lifeless factors.

Nature's fertile living soils have down the ages been abundantly sufficient for the existence of all life in health up to about eighty years ago, when something took place which gradually began to rob many cultivated areas of their fertility and cropping power. It is more than probable that changed conditions of the soil cause a serious reduction in the essential nutritive and biological values of the food plants growing on these areas. What was the cause, or causes, of this denudation

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of soil fertility, and its impaired growths? Was it the advent of chemical fertilizers?

Or was it the desire on the part of the producer for quantitative rather than the much more essential qualitative crop production?

ratnei man iuc uiulu Or was it perhaps the adoption of a short-term policy ot getting quick results which pay an immediate interest on the capital invested, while working with nature needs a longer term policy ? . . ~ , .....

Wricultural practices formerly aimed at maintaining soil-fertility. Of late considerations of exploitation have replaced them. If the deterioration of the surface soils brought about through these changes continues at the same speed as it has during the last few decades, will there not be a danger of an Empire food famine? Or a danger of such a change taking place in the composition of some of our essential food nlants that will make them worthless, or cause them to die out.

plants, mat win mane man wunmcas, ««~- *- - - _ Should not arrangements be made for every acre of suitable soil in the British Isles to be brought into cultivation by creating living soil conditions for the production of such life-giving foods as are necessary for the stamina of our people?

IUI LUG SLaillllia. VJI uuj p-uj"^ England was almost starved out during the last war. It will mean the end of our ereat Empire if we are starved out during the next war.

ine enu 01 uui gicai. i-iupt " »■- ■»•— ■■ o It is to those who care for the future as well as for the present human existence on earth that I address this Memorandum, in an earnest endeavour to make the earth truly fertile for ourselves and those coming after us.

THE SOIL AND ITS PRODUCTS

We are faced to-day with most serious problems, when we investigate human health, as well as the state of health of animals and plants, and the fertility of the soil. We cannot expect health to prevail in the higher kingdoms of nature and least of all in man, if the basis of earthly existence, the soil we walk on and some products of which wc eat, is not in a real state of health.

IlUl 111 a ICCLI wi '"- 1 " 1 "' .. Much valuable research has been carried out with regard to all these problems, but it seems imperative that we must study them in their complexity, in their inter-relationships, rather than try to separate them or to take them singly. The aim before us is clear : a healthy existence of present and future mankind here on earth. But are we not under present conditions choosing the wrong road to this end?

An enormous wealth of knowledge and material has already been accumulated bearing on issues raised above. I have come across so many totally divergent views and practices for food production that there does not appear to be anv possibility of reconciling them with each other. In an Appendix to this Memorandum I have tried to review those methods with which I have come into contact during my life. Quite apart from the divergent nature of these different systems and methods of farming, there does not seem to be any earnest endeavour for co-operation in searching for the best method. The situation,

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however, is so very serious that such co-operation is most urgently needed.

Out of my experience and life work I feel it my task to urge an examination of the ways and means of soil-cultivation and food production.

At present two main farming systems present themselves and it is my earnest conviction that both of them demand serious impartial investigation ; only the one is now in general use and well founded on present day theories, while the other appears both very ancient and out-of-date and also revolutionarily new, without apparent theoretical support.

It is the privilege of the scientist not to be prejudiced for or against any theory but to be able to look at all sides of a problem.

It is the task of a responsible Government to make provision for the well-being and the health of present and future generations.

It is the desire of every serious and responsible farmer to know how he can meet the demands of his fellow human beings for proper food in such a way that soil, plants and animals entrusted to his care are efficient and healthy.

These three : scientist. Government, and farmer must meet to investigate the problem of food production. They need the support of the consuming public, because there cannot be a more important step towards a healthy human existence than the investigation into the right methods of food production.

What we need is a common ground where all those engaged in soil cultivation and food production can meet and co-operate, whether their views are orthodox or not. However fundamentally they may differ in their views, both regarding the theoretical aspects and the practical measures, a common enquiry can be of the greatest benefit to mankind, if all taking part meet in the endeavour not to further their own aims or views, but rather to widen their own outlook by cooperating with others.

The problem of healthy food production is vast and complex because it involves man, animal, plant and soil —not as separate entities and problems, but in their connections with, and their effect upon each other. Only the closest co-operation between the many different views and methods can lead to a solution.

The goal is so great that no effort should be considered too irksome or too costly.

It appears to me that the only way to prove the absolute truth of the vital points connected with the food-stuffs (grown under the various systems of farming), and consumed by animals and man, is to obtain a complete and exhaustive analysis of the whole of each species of food plant, juices, mineral salts, vitamins, and their full biological composition and nutritional value, grown under each of the present soil improvement systems, as well as a complete analysis of the chemical, and biological values of the living organisms in the soils in which such plants have grown, together with a statement covering any soil changes, and the cause or causes of such changes under each system.

In doing so it is, however, most essential that close attention is

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given to the right and adequate analytical method. A restriction to quantitative standards will not suffice when we deal with problems of lite. Analysis can give us an insight into the properties of the substances. Analytical methods are suitable only to the inorganic world, the world of matter which is accessible to measure, weight and number. A living organism is more than the sum of the substances into which we can dissect it during analytical processes. The right approach to the problem of life is synthesis, a method which fundamentally differs from analytical quantitative research. We shall not gain insight into the problems of life (and food production is essentially a problem of life) if we reduce living organisms to the level of quantitatively comprehensible substances. We must develop a method of investigation adequate to the living nature of our food.

I am not a scientist, but I have sufficient faith in human nature to feel sure that endeavours will be made to develop methods of research regarding the synthesis of the true nature of life.

Such investigations as I have roughly indicated should be carried out over a period of consecutive years :

(a) to ascertain true immediate biological values.

(b) to discover what indications there are of the working of the inevitable Law of Inertia.

The work entailed by such analyses and syntheses would, of course, be much too big a task for any individual group of scientists. lam sure however that the co-operation of individuals with different views, with different theories, and with different practical methods, can be of the greatest benefit if they meet on the basis of mutual confidence and trust that they are in search of the truth.

The Government's most efficient agricultural institutes should also help, but generous provision should be made that other groups as well as individuals find full representation. The issue is so big that we cannot afford to ignore any single voice. Therefore I make this appeal for a new basis of co-operation.

A spirit of tolerance should prevail as it must be realised that new ideas raised by individuals or small groups, have often not had the chance or the financial means to be tried out.

It may well be that in the course of this enquiry the scope of the investigations will be widened. Perhaps much bigger problems than merely the right methods are involved. After all, the choice of methods is only the outcome of a system of farming. But if all are prepared to look for truth only, we can confidently start with such investigations as suggested above.

No fair estimate of any method of agriculture, or of any fertilizing substance or mixture can be arrived at in the absence of exact knowledge regarding the facte rs which underlie and contribute to the production of foodstuffs of complete biological and nutritional values.

EMPIRE IMPORTANCE OF THE PROBLEM

At the outset the importance of the problem would appear to warrant its serious consideration by the Imperial Bureaux of Agriculture.

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It matters little to the individual how he dies, or from what cause or causes —as all men have to die from some cause. Such indifference to causes of death, however, cannot lie so with the totality of the people of a Nation, or their end is not far distant, and this balance, or efficiency is dependent entirely upon the Nation's greatest asset — an adequately balanced and productive living soil in which to grow food plants of the highest nutritive biological value.

I feel assured that all Governments and individuals alike must realise that the factors I have set out in this Memorandum which emphasises the absolute necessity for the production of much better foods for our people than those procurable to-day, require most serious consideration.

This appeal for food containing nature's nutritive values, is on behalf of all those who take interest in their own and their children's health and vitality of body and brain.

I appeal to all for help to clean the Empire slate of the " Black Plague " of ill-health and its causes that have crept, and are still creeping, into every home.

Why should disease-creating foods be freely available to the public while the sale of poisonous drugs has been controlled?

Processed and denatured foods of whatever kind should be entirely eliminated from all markets. An insistent demand for essential nourishing foods will in time eliminate all denatured foods.

HUMAN NUTRITION

It can be authoritatively stated that it is the continuous dailyintake of foodstuffs lacking in certain factors essential for human health —even if only infinitesimally divergent from those of complete nutritional values—which undermines the health and vitality of all so-called civilized peoples.

The continual consumption of faulty food is the primary cause of the want of complete success in medical and nutritional practices.

I say this, as I well know that the basis of all vigorous life and health in plant, animal and man, is food of full nutritional value, and it is evident that any superimposed scientific structure, of whatever nature, however carefully devised, can encompass nothing but the alleviation of the effects of disease if impaired foodstuffs are continuously consumed.

Everybody desires to be fit and well, but where is the food to be obtained which will ensure this?

SCIENTIFIC POSITION FINALLY ESTABLISHED

When the scientific position has been established, and the appropriate foodstuffs are produced, the practical point arises that these essential foodstuffs must be within the reach of all.

Surely a matter of such vital importance as the correct feeding of its people should be the urgent aim of every Government. To-day half the world is ill, and the other half has something the

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matter with it! If we were under a civil contract to keep body and brain in good order and repair, Governments and individuals alike would be in gaol.

The time is overdue for all this to be remedied. Nature has no disease! Who has blundered? Not nature!

ARMAMENTS

Adequate protective armaments by force of circumstances are of the most vital importance to England and her far-flung possessions. But is not the task of providing adequate protection for the health, vitality and happiness of the 500,000,000 souls living under our Flag, and of" those coming after them, upon whom the defence of our Empire will depend, a matter as vital to us as armaments?

History shows that the characteristics of our people are such that when trouble of whatever nature threatens or comes, we take major defeats with equanimity—but that our final wholehearted effort when our backs are to the wall, is Victory. It is one thing finding ourselves in this position through outside pressure— but quite another thing to find ourselves there by our own wilful negligence.

NEW DISEASES

We have the appalling knowledge that new diseases are appearing day by day in all three kingdoms of nature, vegetable, animal and man. The heroism and life devotion of scientists, the medical profession and nutritionalists, who have given of their best in their efforts to alleviate sufferings and pain, and to eradicate some of the dread diseases around us —we must reluctantly admit have been without much avail. . __ __ • > i 1 1 . r1, rt I r-t T1 ill T X IDO T*C f

What diseases have been really cured during the last fifty years; 1 The Law of Inertia has taken its inevitable toll. Cannot the reason for this universal failure to cure disease be attributed solely to the study of alleviating the effects of disease, instead of the study of the basic cause?

THE CAUSES OF DISEASE

What are the fundamental causes of so many diseases of to-day? Are they not soil deterioration, and food plants of inadequate biological value for animal and human consumption?

No treatment merely of the effects of disease can cure that disease. Elimination of its cause is the only cure.

If undiseased food plants containing essential biological values, could be made available to our people, and to humanity in general, how much more happiness would there be in the world, how much less pain, suffering and grief!

I think nothing but disaster can follow the application of the present scientific findings and practices in nutrition, and also in those of the orthodox Medical Practitioner, unless the foods produced for the consumption of animal and man, are absolutely restricted to what Nature intended them to be, foods containing full biological value.

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When foods full of nutritional values, and free from poison and disease are made everywhere available there will be a sure basis for Medicine and Nutrition to work upon. This will also be a blessing to the wage earner, who will then have unimpaired foods at his command for himself and family at lower cost, as less would be required to satisfy their wants.

Foods essential for the health and vitality of all, can only be produced from virgin soil, or soil kept in that indispensable live state by carrying in its humus the necessary bacteria and other living organisms imperative for a balanced soil.

"Hie soil as such must be recognised as an organism, and not mereiy as an accumulation of substances.

Cuttings from the public press of New Zealand and from recent publications in Australian scientific papers indicate many new diseases in the animal and vegetable kingdoms. The recent and sudden outbreak of facial eczema in sheep and in milking herds in New Zealand, causes me to submit that there is ample justification on every hand for my urgent suggestions for definite knowledge concerning our soils and food plants produced by them for human and animal consumption. It would be easy to quote similar instances from other countries.

Is it impossible for us to imagine that the present ruthless policies of so-called civilised Nations, where men have been trained and armed for the deliberate purpose of aggression, murder and theft, have been caused in some part by the continuous consumption of faulty foodstuffs grown on impaired soils, thus producing impaired mentality?

If the world is to slip back to barbarism, civilisation as we know it will be at an end.

When viewing the toll taken during the last fifty years by the Law of Inertia, caused by the continuous intake of impaired foods (even if these foods were only slightly divergent from those of complete nutritional values) we must ask ourselves if our mentality is not already affected.

Can any deny that health and vitality—even life itself —depends upon undeteriorated foods from natural, unimpaired, living soils?

If these facts are undisputable, should not the same wholehearted Empire devotion and efforts as are now being energetically organised for the protection of our shores, be made for an equally vital problem—the health, vitality and stamina of the people on whom, now and in the future, lies the burden of keeping these shores inviolate?

I conceive it probable that the continuous use of artificial chemical fertilizers may be one of the causes of the faulty foodstuffs that arc now being sold to the public, and, should this conception be proved to be true, it is with the greatest diffidence I submit that no one should be allowed to sell any such fertilizers, or any bacteria-carrying substances for supposed live soil rejuvenation, without full and clear guarantee from the Government to the public, that each of such chemical fertilizers, or other substances, has been thoroughly examined by their Agricultural Department, and certified that such material has been proved by their tests, to be capable of restoring impoverished, unbalanced soils to living fertility for natural plant growth, and that the products grown thereon are health promoting.

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The totality of my appeal is for exact scientific knowledge as to :

One. What substances to apply to starved, infertile soils to make them livingly fertile and capable of producing Nature's lifegiving foods, which are so all-important to animal and man.

Two. That no foods of whatever nature grown or manufactured should be allowed to be sold to the public, unless certified by Governments of their full nutritional and biological value.

Is the twentieth century to pass without a determined and joint effort being made by all concerned to bring the soil and its products back to that indispensable condition through which alone the health and well-being of all life on earth is maintained? If the present faulty conditions of soil cultivation are considered " good enough ", what will be the result on those coming after us of whose well-being we are custodians?

Can anything be more important to Governments and people alike than life-giving foods?

THE FOODS EATEN BY OUR ANCESTORS

We all know that down the ages the soil which grew the plants for animal and man could only have been Nature's balanced soil carrying living humus.

It was the foods from these living soils that put into the blood-stream of our progenitors those vital forces which enabled them to build the stalwart British stock.

What is the cause of the dreadful scourge of ill-health and disease throughout the world to-day?

What is the cause that has filled, and is still filling, our hospitals and mental institutions?

Is it anything but the toll taken by Nature's inevitable and unchanging Law of Inertia through faulty foods produced from faulty soils?

It was about ninety years ago that man began to tamper with the soil's indispensable balance, by adding to it such artificial chemically prepared mineral substances as he considered were necessary for plant growth and mass production.

THE COUNTRY'S GREATEST ASSET—THE SOIL

It cannot, I think, be denied by anyone that a Nation's greatest asset is a continually fertile soil which contains a correct balance of the necessary substances and forces for growing food plants of full biological values.

Man appears to have lost all scruples about tampering with the soil for its exploitation. Soil-erosion, occurring all over the world, is Nature's answer. We must —besides some of our practices—also drastically change our whole attitude towards the soil.

THE EARTH. THE SOIL

The Earth and its soil : whence did they come? Can any deny that the Earth and all that it comprises were made

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by an All-seeing Creator, and given to Man in trust for his legitimate use for the production of life-giving foods from generation to generation, and that the Creator is still its real owner?

That the Earth as originally created for man's use was fertile, and abundantly adequate for growth of natural unimpaired food plants, for the building and maintaining of natural health and vitality of animal and man throughout their existence on it, must be obvious to all, of whatever Nationality or creed.

The living fertility of the Earth's virgin soils in the torrid, the temperate, and the semi-frozen zones, is beyond dispute. This common state of soil fertility was the Creator's gift to all men. It has lasted unimpaired from man's advent on Earth to now, except in those areas where man, through his faulty ideas, has altered and destroyed it. The original chemical, mineral, biological and balanced equipment of the soil was devised to be ready at all times for the great miracle of plant life : i.e. creating living matter—green life —out of inorganic substances. We all realise that the soil in enclosed areas, continuously cultivated, must have put back into it what continuous cropping takes out, and the universal method from the beginning of husbandry was the replenishing of soil thus denuded with prepared organic substances, animal and vegetable, until some ninety years ago, when artificial chemical fertilizers were brought into more or less general use on enclosed cultivated areas in almost every country. These artificial fertilizing substances were no doubt very easy to administer, could be procured when desired, and undoubtedly during the period of their first few years' use increased crops and growth.

It is not the question of increased cropping that requires substantiating, but the nutritive value of the foods produced for human and animal consumption by these artificial soil stimulants. If these do not inhibit any of the soil functions ordained by Nature for perfect plant growth, such as to impair or kill the necessary living organisms in the soil ; to alter in any way the soil secretions so necessary for plant growth ; or alter the plant's chemical, biochemical and biological constituents, including the vitamins : —nothing can be said against their use. If the Government, in whose hands the health of the people rests, will, after exhaustive, critical examination of soils (their texture, soil solutions, chemical, biochemical, biological and bacterial content) and the same critical examination of the nutritive value of plants grown under such chemical fertilizers, guarantee to the public that such foods sold to the people contain their fully nutritive value : —all will be well.

But I most respectfully submit that the Government of a people cannot allow its soil, the soil of its people, made for them and delivered to them by its Creator in good order and condition, to be so impairec by faulty methods of cultivation that nothing but faulty, dis promoting foods can be grown in it.

EMPIRE SOILS

The ignorant depletion of the productivity or cropping value of our Empire soils should, I think, be elassed as a criminal act against the State.

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All soils capable of being cultivated can be made to produce efficient nutritive foodstuffs for human consumption by correct husbandry, and if from any cause whatever the soils are made unfit for such natural growths, nothing but ill-health and disease to animal and man can follow.

\\ i' exploit the soil at our door to secure a forced crop by whatever means presents itself regardless of the nutritive value of such products. The soil under such management becomes less and less productive year by year, which of course means it is not pulling its Empire weight in either wanted foodstuffs or their health-giving requirements.

The world population is steadily increasing. But what class of humanity is to populate the earth if faulty foodstuffs are allowed to be consumed?

RECENT SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES

What man is there to-day so bold as to deny, in the light of recent discoveries in Science, that vital influences from all the spheres in the earth’s circumference are continuously rayed on to, and into our soils, for man to capture if he knows the way?

Some methods of agriculture carry to the plant elements more vital to man and animals than others.

Which methods are valuable

Which methods are harmful

How harmful some of these methods are, the impaired and diseased in body and mind around us to-day give answer.

PURE FOOD ENACTMENT

Governments of all civilized countries have wisely imposed strict regulations governing their Drug, Pharmaceutical, and Pure Food Enactments. All such regulations have been designed for the protection of their people from the sale of poisonous and deleterious manufactured drugs and food products. Cannot the sale of faulty imitations of foods not possessing their full nutritive values be included in the prohibitive regulations, as such foods are not only mere " fillers " but are the generators of ill-health and disease, providing little indeed of the vital forces required?

Why should not poisonous sprays (so harmful to man and soils), used for the attempted eradication of parasitical diseases on food plants and food products, also be included in such prohibitive regulations?

Does not the land and its products, which form the basis and source of all life and health, also require direct legislative protection of a similar nature?

Can a Government treat with indifference the diminishing fertility of its soil—its greatest asset—through the acts of ignorance on the part of its tillers?

Is not the Empire wholly dependent on the fertility of its soil?

I!t

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FORMER PUBLICATION

“ FACTS RELATING TO LIFE-GIVING FOODS ” ITS DISCUSSION BY IMPERIAL CONFERENCE, 1923

In Australia, when carrying out my self-imposed task of organising my Australian and Malayan Battle-Plane Campaign, under the authority of His Majesty's Government, 1914-1918, I published for free distribution a pamphlet entitled " Facts relating to new Scientific Discoveries concerning Life-giving Foods ".

In 1923, I approached Mr. Baldwin, then Prime Minister of England, and also the Prime Ministers of all our Dominions, and suggested that the matter of the health of our people was of such vital importance to us that I submitted that it should be discussed at the forthcoming Imperial Conference. This was done, and the outcome was the Enactment governing our present " Pure Food " Regulations.

Much more than the present " Pure Food " Enactment is required to-day, not only to safeguard the health and vitality of our people, but to hold inviolate the Empire of which we are the custodians for future generations.

TO-DAY'S NEED : GOVERNMENTS' SPONSORSHIP OF EMPIRE NUTRITION PROBLEM

Inasmuch as this problem is not only national in scope but affects directly the whole of our Empire, the active sponsorship of the investigation by Governments, and the whole public is imperative. Only under such conditions will it be practicable to enlist the co-ordinated efforts of scientists, medical men, tillers of the soil, and consumers throughout the Empire, in such a manner as to lead to the achievement of practical results.

The problem is as wide as the World

Its solution is the greatest need of all peoples.

THE ONLY ALTERNATIVE TO INTERNATIONA! DISASTER AND CHAOS

To-day Nations are reaching out for the possession of other lands in order to grow the foodstuffs necessary to maintain their peoples. So determined are they and so insistent is the demand that war must succeed war, and only an intelligent solution of the World’s agricultural problem can obviate a series of upheavals which threaten specifically to put an end to our present civilization.

THE ROLE OF THE FARMER

The content and condition of the soil determine the nutritional value of the food we eat, therefore, for good or for ill, we are in the hands of the man who tills it.

To the extent that each and every farmer retains in the soil all the nutritive elements necessary for plant growth of full biological values,

to that extent only will individuals who are dependent on foodstuffs he produces be healthy—and Nations will flourish.

Great responsibility, therefore, rests upon the farmer in the exercise of his great trust, but much heavier responsibility lies upon the Governments and people generally, in seeing that the farmer is assisted in keeping up to Nature's original, unimpaired standard for all food products from the soil.

We have learnt from Sir Robert McCarrison " that food, not climate, is the dominating health factor ". Does not this fact give us pause?

MY PERSONAL INTEREST IN SOILS

I have been for many years intimately connected with matters concerning soils, being owner of Rubber Estates in Malaya, also of Sheep and Cattle Stations in New Zealand, all of which properties I personally manage, visiting them yearly from London. I have no interest whatever in any Land or Fertilizing undertakings. lam merely a producer of Rubber, Tin, Sheep, Wool and Cattle, but I am most anxious to produce the best possible rubber and wool, and to breed and grow sheep and cattle free from disease.

We all know that whatever treatment the soil is given, its influences for good, or for bad, reach far beyond any temporary stimulation of crops.

It is only the accumulation of the effects of years of manurial treatment of whatever kind, that can prove which of the many systems and substances used have caused, or are causing, a natural and reliable medium for the growth of foods of full nutritional and biological values; or a death trap for plant, animal and human life.

When these points are definitely proved, the knowledge will greatly encourage all those dealing with the soil and its food products.

At the time of writing my original pamphlet on " Life-Giving Foods " in Australia at the end of the War, I suggested to our various Governments to send a body of specialists of all sections of science to visit every civilized country, and every native race, to ascertain and record the following particulars for (A) a period of approximately a hundred years ago, and (B) at the time of the investigation :

1. The food cultivated and eaten by their people

2. Ailments and diseases prevalent.

3. Their yearly birth-rate and survival to middle and old age

4. The average length of life.

5. The condition of their teeth and mentality

0. The chief occupation of their people.

7. The consumption of cow and other animal milk per head of population.

8. The incidence of cancer per head and family of population.

9. The incidence of tuberculosis per head and family of population

Had such a report been possible, it would have given to the world data of the utmost value.

I think that this investigation is of such importance to all, that it should be undertaken at the earliest possible date, as its value cannot

26

be counted in terms of money. I therefore, appeal to the wealthy of all Nations to give their personal and financial help to such a body ot scientists capable and willing to carry out this research.

PRODUCTION AND SALE OF IMPAIRED FOODSTUFF

If I am fortunate enough to enlist the whole-hearted support of those interested in the health of our Nation, and the Government see fit after obtaining the necessary data from exhaustive examinations of soils and food plants, to issue regulations prohibiting the sale o faulty foodstuffs, vegetable and animal, produced on impaired and faulty soils, then I feel certain that the landed proprietors of large and small areas would not object to any regulation which had for its object the increased productivity of their soils by making them balanced and alive, and capable of producing health-giving foods in place of harmful disease-inducing products.

There is little doubt that every Government has the right to protect its people from the sale of poisonous drugs ; to protect its water supply and the air breathed by its people from disease-dealing contamination. Surely, therefore, a Government has the right to protect its people from the sale of faulty imitations of fully-nutritive foodstuffs by either prohibiting their growth on all soils deficient in the required biological composition, or by prohibiting the sale of all impaired held or garden products, both vegetable and animal.

TO THE WORLD PRESS

1 appeal to the World Press to do their utmost to enlist the sympathy and help of their readers in insisting that their Governments shall make available to all and sundry foods of full nutritional values ,n,l of thp renuired biological composition.

and ol tne requireu inuiogii.ai ia""i~^"«"I send this my earnest appeal on behalf of humanity, first to my own country and then to all countries, through the following channels .

Each Government's Agricultural Departments;

Scientific Institutes ; Agricultural Associations ; Educational Departments; Ecclesiastical Bodies : Public Press ; Public Libraries, etc., etc.

FINAL APPEAL

Mv earnest appeal for an unbiased investigation of all plants grown and sold for food, and of the soils in winch they is made on behalf of humanity : to the Government ofEngland and the Governments of all our Dominions, Colonies and Protectorate,, a> well as to the Governments of all Nations.

This appeal on account of the soil and its products has wi.U-r Lge than that of the Departments of Agriculture, as the health „f , mr „, () ple involves also Politics, Economics, and Social Science.

Can it be said or even thought, that the full and complete scientific exanSationS investigation 1 have indicated are too costly to be undertaken at this juncture?

22

Can the cost of, or the time occupied by Scientists on a matter so vital to the health of the Nations be weighed against either money or convenience?

Those who read this Memorandum will agree that the time is due for adequate measures to be taken towards combating and eradicating disease at its source—THE SOIL.

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Appendix

HUMAN BRAIN CAPACITY VERSUS MICROSCOPE

The impression of physical objects registered by the eye on the brain during its waking hours carries us at once in our cogitations (when concentrated on any particular object of any of the four kingdoms of nature) far beyond the bounds and findings of analytical chemistry, and into the realm of their true syntheses, (i.e. of life, as explained on page 10 of this Memorandum) where assumptions on definite weighings, measurings and countings become impossible, and one at once realises that the unseen influences of these realms in the four Kingdoms of Nature must be of vital importance to the life, well-being, structure and form of the object we are contemplating, and also of the analysable portions of it.

The influences of these unseen, positive factors, the workings of each of which are partly obvious in the completed vital soil solutions, root colloids, juices, saps and hereditary structure of all species of the vegetable kingdom, and their growth factor, must be appreciable to all.

Perhaps many of Nature's greatest secrets will for ever be withheld from Man in his present form ; but their presence and activities being granted, scientific deductions as to their potency, and the value of their transmutations and rhythms, could no doubt be arrived at by those with conceptions capable of acquiring some knowledge of the causes behind the production of the object which lie far beyond the circumscribed ring of the most powerful microscope.

The great sacrifices and life devotion of Scientists of all branches throughout the ages up to the present time cannot but enlist the profound appreciation and gratitude of all for the exact knowledge they have given us of some of the intricate workings of the mysteries of Nature in and through physical objects and their surroundings from the infinitesimal to the gigantic ; but at the present time these individual findings do not appear to the ordinary man to link up with the day by day requirements of the processes of real life, and it is this apparent want of dovetailing with the fundamental problems of existence—The Soil and its Products—that in this instance urges me to suggest a closer association with these, and the many wonderful known influences beyond the vision and thought of the ordinary human being.

During my life 1 have come into contact with many different systems of soil cultivation, and I offer here a short review of the main groups of them. This resume is not intended to pass judgment, although I have not hesitated to mention certain of my observations.

Man, animal, plant and soil, are involved in soil cultivation, both

in the process itself and in the ultimate goal of all these activities, inasmuch as man and animal depend on soil and plant for their life. This fact of their all being involved should make us widen our outlook. We should not be satisfied by the results of cropping for a few years, bv the one or other method, but two main questions must be answered satisfactorily :

A. Is the soil fertility increased, maintained, or decreased

B. Are the products of the soil wholesome for man and beast?

If we approach the investigation in this spirit, we shall soon see that, to deal dogmatically and with narrow-minded intolerance, where a world-wide outlook is needed, is wrong and harmful. Each country and each generation has to find its own form of soil cultivation and food production. If it only always tries to give a satisfactory answer to these two questions, it will then be possible to come to a positive reconciliation of points of view at first seemingly irreconcilable.

I have for many years experimented with various kinds of fertilizing substances that from time to time have appeared on the market. During the War, I experimented with Professor Bottomley's bacteria media called " Humagine ". My unsuccessful attempts to establish imported bacteria cultures may have been doomed from the start, from want of knowledge, as it now appears that each country and each species has its own special brand of soil organisms, and that these are the only ones that will survive.

Subsequently I experimented with many artificial fertilizers in common use, in an endeavour to improve the nutritive values of the products I was growing in different parts of the world. At that time I came to the conclusion that there was no doubt that dry synthetic fertilizers were much easier to apply to cultivatable lands than ordinary dunging and composting, especially for rough, hilly country where carting was impossible. The areas artificially stimulated undoubtedly gave a bigger yield than adjoining untreated areas, and in winter time they certainly kept the sheep and cattle better filled, but the ordinary ailments of the stock were in no way reduced. This fact led me to be suspicious of the resulting values obtained from the use of such plant stimulants.

These artificial mineral fertilizers have now been used for about eighty or ninety years, quite long enough, I presume, for any changes in the constituents of the soil to be ascertained, and it is on account of the changed structure of the soil, from the use of artificial fertilizers, that I now ask for exhaustive examinations to be made, as something has been the cause of the increase of ill-health of plant and animal life in almost every part of the world.

It is claimed that dead chemical mineral fertilizers upset Nature's balance of cosmic and earthly influences and forces by destroying the earth organism in living soil, thus preventing the plant from assimilating the necessary free mineral gifts of Nature which surround it on every side, ready to be absorbed if the soil conditions are suitable. Does it, therefore, mean that artificial mineral manures alter the balance and the composition of the Earth's soil? Or some of her other predestined gifts which have hitherto promoted the soil's productivity?

25

Or was it the advent of the application of man's artificial fertilizers to the soil? Something has happened to cause this great disaster to civilised man during the last half-century.

We know that healthy and life-giving food can only be grown in a living soil with a sufficiently large amount of humus and with an active micro-organic life. Man, however, within the last few decades, has attempted to supplant Nature, by the use of synthetic chemical fertilizers in every department of vegetable growth in many parts of the world.

On the one hand, the scientists are agreed that natural vegetable life can only exist in living soils carrying the indispensable colonies of soil micro-organisms, and it is further stated that natural healthy plant life can only exist if there is interplay with the soil's ingredients and the atmospheric (cosmic) influences.

On the other hand, why is it that the various synthetic chemical fertilizers are so strongly recommended by many scientists to agriculturists?

If plant life is dependent on organic living soils, why should any of the dead artificial chemical fertilizers be put on any cultivatable areas? There is no doubt that chemical fertilizers are largely used for every form of agriculture in almost every part of the world, and the users of them are apparently up to the present satisfied that some benefit is gained by their use. Is this satisfaction of some of their users because the applications of certain forms of them in specific quantities and mixtures, after some eighty years, have proved beyond all doubt that natural vegetable life can be stimulated and maintained in its full biological and nutritional values for human and animal health by these substances, without consideration or regard for Nature's fundamental growth factor— a living soil ?

It is only organic substances which are concerned with the production of humus in the soil.

Scientists are agreed that the multitudinous colonies of the soil's micro-organisms are entirely dependent on the organic matter held in the soil : plants depend for their natural healthy existence _ upon soil solutions and colloids engendered by the micro-organisms, as this is the only source of their food substances.

The plant foods are supplied through the actions of the microorganisms which convert the mineral salts in the earth into a liquid form ; the only way the plant can use them.

NEED FOR THE ACQUISITION OF THE DEFINITE TRUTH

A matter, therefore, of the very greatest importance to Governments, and to individuals alike, is the acquisition of the definite truth as to the degree of destruction caused to bacteria, and other soil organisms known to be necessary for plant growth, through the continuous, or intermittent application of synthetic fertilizers that have been during many years, and are still being used in perhaps a misdirected endeavour to improve soils and crops, pastures, cereal, vegetable, fruit and flower growth.

26

The statement made, that “ to-day it takes double the amount of artificial fertilizers to produce the same crops as were produced fifteen years ago ” is arresting, and calls in itself for a close investigation of the actual position.

There are, of course, many other kinds of fertilizers on the market, both live organic and dead inorganic. The object of the live organic is to add to, or increase, the living micro-organisms in natural soils and produce natural plants.

The object of the dead inorganic chemical substances is to increase the bulk and size of the plant without any regard to the nutritive food factors of what is produced by their aid. In later years I have come into contact with two methods of soil cultivation and soil renovation, which are based on the application of living organic materials, as distinct from the use of merely fertilizing or stimulating substances.

“ Dynamic Agriculture ” as inaugurated by Dr. Rudolf Steiner, and the " Indore ” Process of converting organic products into compost, as worked out by Sir Albert Howard.

DR. RUDOLF STEINER'S SYSTEM OF " DYNAMIC AGRICULTURE "

Of the systems of agriculture I am acquainted with, I consider that the system of " Dynamic Agriculture " as practised at the Sunfield Agricultural Centre, Clent, nr. Stourbridge, Worcs., at Surfleet in Lincolnshire and many other parts of Great Britain as well as in other countries, as inculcated by Rudolf Steiner, complies more with Nature's requirements for the production of food adequate to human and animal needs than any other system now practised.

In this system the substances of the Earth's soils are combined with cosmic influences, while the latter are apparently disregarded by other modern agricultural svstems.

As far as I can judge, " Dynamic Agriculture " is the only comprehensive new system of farming developed in modern times which makes use of old and w-eli-proved principles coupled with new, but obviously reasonable conceptions and theories regarding the ever-present and everworking quota of natural life in the four Kingdoms of Nature, and thus carries the prolongation of natural plant life into the future.

Rudolf Steiner lifts the problem of manuring from the level of adjusting the substantial composition of the soil and thereby trying to meet the substantial requirements of the plants, to the level of life by defining manuring as " making the soil alive ". In doing so, the farmer brings the soil into " good heart ", and therewith definite heart-like functions can be said to be promoted in the plant. Thus the plants are enabled to make use of all the beneficial forces and rhythms circulating in their environment. It is the duty of all farmers to establish the right equilibrium between earthly and cosmic substances and forces. In doing so he raises his farm to the level of an individuality.

At the present time, I am following out the practices of this system of agriculture on portions of my rubber estates in Malaya and on my

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sheep and cattle pastures, crops and orchards in New Zealand, and at the same time I am experimenting with other organic substances, in order to compare their effect upon soil conditions, plant growth, and stock nutrition I

SIR ALBERT HOWARD’S “ INDORE ” PROCESS FOR PROVIDING HUMUS

I have not gone into the details of the immensely valuable work inaugurated by Sir Albert Howard in his " Indore " System of agriculture in India and elsewhere, because in so far as the application of living humus from compost materials to impoverished soils is concerned, they are similar in some respects to those advocated by Rudolf Steiner, both as regards the forming of compost heaps and aversion to the application of mineral fertilizers to the soil. Rudolf Steiner however goes much further in his teachings on agriculture as to the definite requirements of plants and animals.

When considering the two somewhat divergent agricultural systems (artificial mineral fertilizers on the one hand, " Dynamic Agriculture " and the " Indore " Process on the other) the following question must present itself to the ordinary mind :

Do plants grown under the administration of mineral fertilizers so influence plant growth as to attract sufficient cosmic and earthly forces and substances to produce foodstuffs of the required high nutritional and biological value? Neither the " Dynamic " principles of agriculture, nor those of the " Indore " method advocate the application of any mineral fertilizers to the soil, but trust, apparently, to the transmutation of some of the ever-constant minerals in the earth combining with other elements, together with the influence of certain plants, to supply the mineral requirements. Do they? Will they?

If it be found on the investigation I have submitted that impoverished soils for a period do not permit of the transmutation processes supplying the necessary quantity of desired ingredients to produce a paying crop, what form, if any, of additional mineral substances could be applied to gradually re-establish the necessary microorganisms in the soil?

(1) The usual powdery artificial fertilizers, or

(2) " Fantastex " of numerous impounded salts in an organic emulsifier, or

(3) Sea Bird Guano " Seyc.hell " rich in lime, phosphoric acid, and bacteria, or other bacteria containing substances?

We must also ask the question whether mineral substances are at all able to promote life as such. All salts in the soil must first be dissolved before they are available to the plant. Water is only the medium for life to appear ; for the stimulation of life as such one must work in the solid elements of the earth.

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INFLUENCES OF LIFE AROUND US

We all take it for granted that Nature will continue working for us in her ordained way, moment by moment, throughout the centuries, regardless of how man interferes with her plans.

The refusal of Nature to work in harmony with man's prostituted actions is fully evident. On the other hand can be seen Nature's harmonious associations with man's work if he obeys her simple laws.

No tiller of the soil is out to spend money wilfully on failures ; we all want to know and to do what Nature requires from us to make our particular endeavours fully successful.

The sowing of seed must have frequently brought to the mind of the farmer the thought : "To what degree, or to what measure, will bountiful and forgiving Nature withhold, or restrict her necessary beneficial forces, and influences, from plants grown under the usual conditions of unbalanced soils ruling to-day? What will she withhold? What bequeath? "

What man, or body of men, can alter, by the most minute fraction, the composition of the multitudinous cosmic influences which have continually worked round and through earth's substances from the beginning of the world?

The physical properties of the soil we can, and have, sadly altered, to the impairment of all life, vegetable, animal and human.

r'e know that all growing plants, good, bad or indifferent, whatthe nature or condition of the soil, receive at least some of those beneficial gifts from Nature, such as the life giving rays from the Sun, the reflected light from the Moon ; and that rain-falls and the wind, atmosDheric and seasonal chances come in contact with all that crows.

Cannot the great body of Scientists of all nations combine to link up their very wonderful discoveries of the visible and physical with those of the unweighable, unmeasurable, and unaccountable, but just as appreciable?

IMPOVERISHED SOIL—DEFICIENT PLANTSUNHEALTHY ANIMALS AND MAN

Have the tillers of the soil been wrong who have kept the soil living and fertile year after year from time immemorial, by replenishing it from Nature’s storehouse —plant and animal residues—and by planting with the consciousness of the influences of all Nature’s free gifts that surround the Earth by night and by day, and the knowledge of how to enlist them.

How right our ancestors were can be partly realised from what was produced by this simple husbandry—the stalwart British race, and our world-famed pedigree stock.

Surely it cannot be impossible for ways and means to be devised by which the original living condition of the soil can be re-established. This productive living soil persisted until a few years back.

34

How far removed our present impoverished soils and plants are from what our forefathers enjoyed can be visualized by the world clamour to-day for better soil and better health of plant, animal, and Man.

The older members of all civilized Nations, now living, in their youth consumed food produced from living soils, and they have fewer ailments and diseases than the younger generations.

The only concrete case I will take to emphasize the many points in this Paper referring to the appalling increase of disease in our midst, is that of CANCER.

The following figures are from the Statistics published by the Registrar General for England and Wales, in the decade 1926-1935. The figures show that cancer has risen from 53,220 in 1926, to 64,507 in 1935 ; an increase of 11,327.

When we reflect on the ailments and diseases that are in evidence in almost every home, and every farm to-day, we must realize that all is not well, either with us, or with our animals.

What is the cause?

The question must present itself

Why are cancer deaths increasing when world-wide strenuous efforts have been, and still are being made to stay its deadly victorious course?

Can the continual consumption of denatured foods lacking in the fundamentally indispensable vitamins, among other food essentials, be the cause of cancer, or be a contributory one to it?

What are vitamins? Whence do they come?

We know that all scientists state that vitamins are absolutely indispensable for the health of animal and man in their daily food, and must be provided for a pure blood stream, and for correct metabolism.

Are vitamins attracted to, absorbed and assimilated by food plants of true biological values only, or are they attracted to, absorbed and assimilated by all kinds of food of whatever biological values, whether grown on living fertile, or on denatured, unbalanced, infertile soil?

Can it be claimed that all the food essentials, including vitamins, are in all foodstuffs grown and marketed for human and animal consumption to-day?

The true solution of these points is of the utmost importance to all, The whole world waits for the true answer from those in whose hands health and agriculture lie.

A critical scientific examination, and exhaustive analysis and synthesis will prove, beyond doubt, whether or not the degeneration of the soil through loss of fertility, with its correspondingly degenerate food plants is the cause of, or a contributory factor to the incidence of cancer and other maladies.

Is the restoration of a natural living soil a task too difficult or too costly to achieve?

Cannot the members of our Governments be seized with these truths, with untruths written in the dying soils around us? The tiller of the soil through his products, is the primary inter-

35

36

mediary between the Earth's soil on the one hand, and animal and Man on the other.

The health and physical fitness of every individual, and every animal, are proportionate to the quality of the food they consume.

The nutritive value of the plant for animal and human food is dependent upon the state of the soil.

The health of a Nation is dependent upon what the farmer produces from his soil.

Impoverished soil means impoverished food plants, and a gradually declining Nation.

As the Soil, so the diet. As the blood stream, so the health of a Nation.

The larger portions of this Memorandum and its Appendix were drafted in New Zealand in January 1938, on my fishing launch at the Bay of Islands, from private notes covering many years. Continued at Auckland and on my sheep and cattle stations in New Zealand in February ; on the voyage from Auckland to Sydney, and in Sydney in March ; at Batu Gajah, Malaya, April and May ; and on my voyage from Penang to Marseilles in June ; completed in London, June 1938.

I leave again for Malaya and New Zealand at the beginning of September next, returning to London in June 1939.

Letters addressed :

Batu Gajah, Perak, Federated Malay States will reach me.

Copies of this Memorandum can be obtained free, from

Robert MacLehose & Co. Ltd.

University Press

Anniesland

Glasgow, W. 3.

Publication and Distribution

For the circulation of this Memorandum, as set out on page 22, I have arranged for an issue of 50,000 copies, but many additional copies may be required before the field of operations I have mapped out has been covered.

There is no copyright, and it is not for sale, but should anyone be interested they are at liberty to reprint in its entirety in any language, provided that such reprint copies are distributed free.

The only other stipulation I make is, that a copy of such reprint is sent to me before distribution, addressed :

C. Alma Baker, C.B.E.

c/o Robert MacLehose i* Co. Ltd.

University Press

Anniesland

Glasgow, W. 3

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