MAN AND THE SOIL

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21184, 6 August 1940, Page 6

MAN AND THE SOIL

FOUNDATION OF LIFE MOVEMENT FOR REFORM ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS “Farming is not only an industry,” said Lord Northbourne in his recent address to the Economic Reform : Club, London, states the Physical j and Mental Welfare Society. “Farm- ! ing is actually the way—the prin- i cipal way—of life for every one of us. Even if we have never set foot off the pavement, the most important —the most vital thing in life to us all is the farm. We all depend upon it. “Most of us personally make no contribution whatever to the farm, either mental or material. A considerable change in our national habit is called for, and a considerable change in our national outlook. “It is said that we are to have monetary reform. Well, if monetary reform is going to do anything in the way of reducing the present insane urge to ‘speed’ and to combat modern concentrations of gigantic units of so-called production, economic reform will be a good thing for the nation and for the world, for ‘mass-production’ has no true organic structure of its own, and its ultimate end can only be dictatorship in one of its numerous forms.” Ignorance of Foundations It is now universally recognised that ancient Rome declined and fell because of the divorce of her peoples from the soil. For the most part, modern civilisations are determined to follow Rome in her method of decline and. fall. There are, however, one or two exceptions to the general rule. In France, immediately prior to the war, 60 per cent of the population still remained on the land. There is a definite connection between this national way of life and that national characteristic described by the London Times military correspondent in a radio talk, when he said: “No other nation on earth has the rapid recuperative power of the French.” In Britain, and in many parts of the British Empire, however, the divorce is almost complete as between the people and the soils that keep them in existence from day to day. There is a simple little story which well illustrates the widespread ignorance in regard to the actual foundations of all physical life and which has been going the rounds for the past 50 years. Most people will remember its resuscitation by the authorities concerned at the beginning of the present century with countryside excursions arranged for London slum children, and during the recent evacuation of London children to the more countrified areas. A little child is made to say:

“In the city we get our milk from a nice little tin, or from a nice clean brown bowl in the shop, and not from a dirty old cow!” The story, whether genuine or not, serves the purpose. Hope For The Future “Economics claim to be a science,” commented Lord Northbourne. “It, however, looks at the situation from one point of view only. The great characteristic of life—the characteristic by which life differs from any possible mathematical expression of itself—is that it is a great deal more than the sum of its parts. Life must be viewed as a whole, if we are to make anything worth while of it. “In all parts of the globe, and in all branches of science, men are now fully alive to this vital truth; and it is in action to be based upon that awakened realisation of the need for symbiosis that any hope for the future lies.” It is most encouraging to know that the policy of the Economic Reform Club of London includes recommendations made from time to time by its “recently set-up Agricultural Research Committee. Here is the beginning of synthetic, concerted action which may bear rich fruit. If the land is to be revived, if the soil is to be restored to optimum fertility, there will be immediate repercussions both upon national health and upon economic problems. Foodstuffs produced from fertile soils not only increase diseaseresistance, but also lower the ration necessary for true health. The restoration of soil-fertility will affect the findings of those scientists who today are fighting for the improvement of the economic position of the very poor and will, in fact, assist them to a solution of their particular problem of ensuring adequate food supplies to “the masses.”