THE GOOD EARTH

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26396, 14 April 1951, Page 3

THE GOOD EARTH

Out of The Earth. By Louis Bromfield. Cassell and Co. Ltd. London. 300 pp.

Many who were to spread themselves across the North American continent brought with them the partly digested farming practices of Europe together with an avaricious outlook and small concern for the future. The result of their activities is well known. The “dust bowl” which in May 1934 provided enough finely divided soil to darken the sun across a continent has been a dramatic warning to farmers of all countries. Less well known however are the efforts of men who struggled to master the depredations of those who went before, and to develop techniques of farm management more suited to the American soil and climate.

Louis Bromfield, already established as a front rank novelist, is also a farmer. He farmed during a period spent in Europe. On his return to his native land he took over a semi-dere-lict area, improved it, and made it famous as Malabar Farm. “Pleasant Valley" and “Malabar Farm” are two books which cover the early period of reconstruction. “Out of the Earth” continues the story from a broader background and is based on the observations, researches and experiments of more than 10 years at Malabar. Naively termed the “new agriculture” what is practised at Malabar is common sense' based on facts ascertained through the natural sciences. Mr Bromfield makes an unfortunate attack on scientists, specialists and experts without acknowledgement for the results of their work used by himself for the sucessful running of Malabar Farm. Mr Bromfield’s criticism is probably directed at the overspecialisation common to education in the United States often resulting in products minus the ability to see the whole picture in proper balance. Mr Bromfield's own • contribution to agriculture, and it is a considerable one, lies in the synthesising of scraps of information obtained from those forced into specialisation by tne pressure of modern life. The available knowledge is gathered and integrated into a workable economic unit. Mr Bromfield has produced a readable and challenging book which should be read and pondered by farmers all over the world.

Profitable Smallholdings. By J. Gunston. John Lehmann. London, 136 PP-

Mr Gunston has already written a number of books on farming, the best known of which is “Farm Friends and Foes.” The book under revtew is written primarily for the beginner on a smallholding. It is entirely concerned with broad principles behind the purchase and management of a smallholding and the marketing of produce. The specific problems of management have appeared in other books by the same author who is a smallholder in the south of England. While the book deals soley with English conditions, the sound common sense it contains has a wide application. The illustrations include prize livestock.

Irrigation. A British Council publication. Longmans, Green and Co. Ltd. Ixmdon, New York and Toronto. 67 pp.

In the Nile Valley, in the basin of the Tigris and Euphrates and in various . parts of pre-partitioned India, British engineers have made considerable contributions to the established practices of irrigation. At a period in history when the material things of Britain are in short supply the British Council has done well to bring forward a publication reviewing what has been accomplished in three separate parts of the world. Three outstanding men—Frederic Newhouse, M. G. lonides and Gerald Lacy—have contributed this account of British science applied in improving the welfare of peoples whom the events of history once placed under the British flag.