CURRENT BOOKS

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24582, 2 June 1945, Page 5

CURRENT BOOKS

THE LAND Gardener’s Earth. By Stanley B. Whitehead. J. M. Bent and Sons Ltd. 231 pp. The Natural Order. Essays in the Return to. Husbandry. By 14 Authors. Edited by H. J. Massinr--Jiam. J. M. Dent and Sons Ltd. 178 pp. The first of fhese two excellent books wilj be welcomed by gardeners who have realised that the foundation of success in the gardens is right treatment of the soil, and that, as soils vary infinitely, it is really not enough to follow general directions. (Some, indeed, may be sadly misleading. The early digging and long wintering that are generally prescribed are profitable on stiff soils out wasteful on light.) Careful,, continued experiment and observation will of course in the long run show how any soil needs to be worked, fed, and cropped to do best and give best; but the right kind of advice, though it can never supersede experiment and observation, will save trouble, time, and mistakes. That is the kind of advice, everywhere supported by clear explanation of the basic facts of soil chemistry, plant chemistry, and so on, that Dr. Whitehead’s book supplies. But composters will find him helpfully on their side; but that does not mean that, in preaching and expounding the need for organic manuring, he rejects the “artificials.” The authors who contribute to “The Natural Order” share one faith: in Mr Massingham’s words, “that the exploitation of the soil for cheapness cr profit alone is ethically unsound. ... The laws of animate nature demand tljat man’s desire to utilise them shall be governed by an approach which is implicitly ethical.” This large doctrine and its implications lead its advocates, perhaps, to some extreme and false positions; as when Mr Massingham himself says sweepingly, and. in defiance of overwhelming evidence, “Health-giving foods can only be consumed fresh by a system of local marketing. ... It is not ‘export or die' but cultivate our own land or die." But taking care not to be swept off his feet by headlong dogmatism and argument, the reader will be profitably impressed by much that is written here, though intended primarily for English readers and to influence individual action and public policy in England. Such a paper as “Mechanisation and the Land” has as much claim on the New Zealand farmer’s attention as on his English colleague’s; and that could be said of others.