USE OF LAND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 September 1942, Page 4

USE OF LAND

810-DYNAMIC FARMING DEVELOPMENT IN UNITED STATES. RELIANCE ON NATURAL METHODS. (By Haydn S. Pearson in the “Christian Science Monitor.”) It is probably safe to say that a majority of city dwellers have never heard of bio-dynamic farming. It is a term neither very old nor very new. Farmers are just beginning to discuss it m farm-group meetings, granges and foiums. It is more than ever important now that the United States must help to feed half the world. In general, bio-dynamic farming is a method of agriculture that organises and conserves the farm’s creative capacity. In specific terms, it means 'farming by natural methods instead of using industrial acids, alkalis, poisons and drugs. It means working entirely with nature. The word “dynamics refers to men’s intelligent handling of soil and the increasing of productivity until a natural balance is achieved. It means returning all possible humus to the soil. , The proponents of the bio-dynamic theory believe that the specialisation of American agriculture during the past half century has not been a wholesome phrase of the total economic and social structure. They believe that farming methods dependent on chemicals are harmful. Agricultural experts have developed a leadership in the last decade unknown in previous eras. Due to general economic conditions, disruption of world trade, drought and dust conditions, great groups of farm families have looked to' the federal, state and county officials for guidance. While the nation's population was increasing rapidly and foreign trade was thriving, due to unnatural stimulation of war business after 1914, farms specialised in one or more crops, millions of acres were ploughed that had always been pasture or grassland. Bio-dynamic farming intrinsicaly implies that nature balances plant and animal life. Its philosophy is that if men did not interfere, nature would establish a harmony of trees, fungi, birds, beasts, insects and plants —and all the other forms of life. The fact that nature of itself usually will fall short of developing all the forms of life that man needs, and enough of them, is no fundamental weakness of the theory. Human intelligence, if correctly used, will furnish the dynamic power to overcome this. The average farmer wastes more humus than he returns to the soil, and endeavours to remedy this with chemical fertilisers.

Agricultural thinkers are coming to believe that a new philosophy must govern American farming. The name, bio-dynamic farming, may never become in general use. But indications are that farming in future must work with, and not against, nature. This means, first, that the soil must have compost and humus material returned. The soil is our most important natural resource. Conservation of this asset must be a primary concern. Man cannot receive without giving. Second, bio-dynamic farming means that soil will be used for the purpose for which it is best fitted. Great areas are meant to be forests; millions of acres will best fulfil nature’s plan as grassland. Tens of thousands of share croppers’ and tenants’ farms will have a big garden, and raise fruits and grains, the food for the family and its livestock. It is a tragic misuse of soil that a farm should all be planted to one crop, and men and animals lack for healthful foods.

Third, as farmers come to realise the value of this philosophy, they will see that it means diversified farming, not one-crop farming. The basis of successful agriculture is livestock, rotation of crops, several lines of income, food production for the farm unit, plus a return to the good earth of those essential qualities and goods which have been removed as the soil serves man’s purposes.

The soil is a precious heritage, the foundation of life for a quarter of our population, and the balance wheel for the economic and social structure of our society. The theories of bio-dynamic farming are in accord with a sound philosophy of agriculture.