THE LAND

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 167, 2 August 1937, Page 6

THE LAND

"The conquest of Nature takes time and patience, but actually it ' costs very little money — the essential preliminary is a few thousands a year spent in research in laboratory and field work, which is/a mere nothing in comparison with the losses involved by neglect. Tbe real cost of remedial action comes with the subsequent administrative odntrol, but that is the business of the governments ooncerned, not of the soientist," writes Professor R. G. Stapledon in "The Land Now and To-morrow." 'Terhaps it should be added that this type o£ work necessarily involves international co-operation, since pests and parasites have no respect for political boundaries. But fortunately for the, world, scientists who are engaged in the struggle of man against Nature flnd less difficulty in international co-operation than statesmen who are engaged in the struggle of man against man; and it may be claimed that their work, though less impressive and less advertised, produces more permanent results. "Does it payf Can it be made to pay? In all conneetions this is the question on everybody's lips to-day. Economics run riot! and economics has taken a flrmer hold on matters agricultural than ever before — but can economics alone be the salvation of agriculture and of the country-side? I think not. There is more to the land and farming than the extraneous advantages to be gained from a substantial halance at the bank. The land itself, in its kindly responsivcness to patient and careful nursing, holds rewards and treasures that cannOt be purchased with gold, or estimated by the most perfeet and elahorate of oost accounts. In had times as in good there are ways and means of paying tribute to the land, and there is -ahvays happiness in the daily round and daily toil for the man who in his very marrow feels he owes a duty to the land — erven as he owes a duty to himself. This sense of intimacy with, and responsibility for, the land to-day is more keenly felt, I am sure, by the generality of our farm hands than by 3he generality of our farmers — by nien who take an infinite pride in a tidy job. To accomplish a tidy job is an act of artistic creativene.-s, and therefore an end in itself — with its own reward." 1