SPECIALISING

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXI, Issue 4954, 11 February 1937, Page 8

SPECIALISING

“The man responsible for running any large mixed farm cannot help being in the closest touch with life; life from seed to completed plant, from embryo to matured animal. He uses the instincts and exploits the ecstasies of the creatures on his land. He is a sort of little good disposing of their fates, modifying them within limits to human purposes, assisting evolution. Why, the very wheat and other cereals have been humanly ‘selected’ from wild grasses; the kales and beets derive from small, wild specimens on the seashore. New ‘breeds’ of potatoes emerge, at the experts’ bidding, every few years as the older varieties tire out. Farming is very near to Nature; but not ‘natural’—that is to say, it does not merely slide Nature’s way; there would be no progress so ... . For a farmer who cares to ‘cul it over’ and think out the meaning of things, these facts (and others) yield a variety of fascinating ideas that plumb some of the depths of life.”—Mr W. J. Bylton in his book, “The Rolling Year.”