“IN LEAGUE WITH THE DEVIL”

Evening Star, Issue 22893, 26 February 1938, Page 20

“IN LEAGUE WITH THE DEVIL”

CORNISH PEOPLE AND AMAZING FARMER Cornish people for miles around Helston_ say_ that Mr George Henry Muller is “ in league with the devil.” Mr Muller lives at the little village of Ruan Minor, overlooking Cadgewith Cove, says a writer in the ‘ Sunday Express. ’ He can grow:— Seven-eared wheat from 5,000-year-old seeds. Strawberries in the open air every month of the year. Cabbage that has no odour when cooked. Beetroot that can be eaten raw. Peas that will stand 25deg of frost in winter. Mr Muller is also an expert water diviner. Householders and farmers in the remote villages of the Lizard are amazed at his ability to find hidden water supples, not only with the diviner’s wand, but merely by looking at the ground. I travelled down to his tiny farm to find the explanation of some of these mysteries. Mr Muller, stocky, ruddyfaced, is the last of a line or Dutch planters from the East Indies. He has peculiar theories on farming. He believes, for example, that the moon has an important influence on all growing things, and he does all his planting two days before the moon is full. “ All these so-called mysteries of mine,” he said, “ are really so simple that the people who have watched me at work since I came here in February can’t believe them. “ All my life I have been growing things rubber and tea in jfTrench [ndo-China during the war, farming in South Africa. “ That is where I 'learned water divining. I spent, six months in the Kalahari Desert, where my life for six months depended on water—and I found the wells with a stick, holding it until it twisted in their direction. ‘‘ Then I came to Britain. I wanted to farm, but I believed that the world has forgotten most of the ancient methods of farming that kept the land fertile. “ I believe that the earth should be fertilised with vegetable matter, not with chemical or animal matter. “ The Cornish people think I am in league with the devil. They think I am mad because I plant whenever possible, two days before full moon. “ But it is easy to prove whether that is right. Take some maize seeds and put two of them on a damp cloth when the moon is new. “ The following week put two more beside them, the next week two more, and so on until two days before full moon. “ You will find that' the first two will take four and a-half days to sprout. The period will grow less until the two that have been planted just before the full moon take less than two days. ■ ** Take the case of this seven-eared wheat. The world has forgotten how to grow it. Some seeds were brought over here from India and Egypt. “ They are 5,000 years old, and black with their age.

here.” He showed me -the result. Every stalk was heavy with seven ears. He has just , bewildered the whole district by saying that he. has divined oil 6,000 ft below ‘ the great plateau that stretches out to the Lizard Light.