A FARMERS'S LIFE
FROM MY EXPERIENCE, by Louis Bromaie Cassell and Company, English price | OUIS BROMFIELD, who died a ~ short while ago, was described by "Sundowner".in this paper as "too successful to doubt his wisdom." This book illustrates the point. However, I should be the last to underrate his wide influence in preaching soil conservation and in applying his precepts at Malabar Farm, and the value, in these times of increasing specialisation and the splintering of agricultural science, of his
urging that full understanding of the processes of plant life, growth and decay, and of soil structure is open only to those who work with plants and animals and soils in the field. The sub-title of the book is "The Pleasures’ and Miseries of Life on a Farm," but there appear to be no miseries on any of the Bromfield farms, whether in Ohio or in Brazil. One admires his zest and enthusiasm, and envies a little his complete self-assur-ance. But I rebel against some of his emotive phrases even while thankful that he has not gone the whole "compost way." The celery for market cooled in spring water "became so crisp that if dropped to the floor it shattered like glass.’ But "this was not the dead
cold of the refrigerator but the living cold of the spring water, gushing out of thé primeval rock." (Italics are the author’s.) The author recognises that his book is "lacking in organisation,’ but this he justifies as "cunning"-a bait to lead on the wary reader. So we have a delightful chapter on "Gardens and Landscapes," following shortly after one on pigs"Hymn to Hawgs"-and preceding the story of his Brazil farm. The last chapter tells of his stumbling on a phrase of Albert Schwaizer’s-Reverence for Life-and the effect it had on his philosophy; from which, of course, followed his desire to tell us all about it. The book is indeed a collection of essays on diverse subjects, as though the author were using it as a vehicle for all the important things he has not told us before, and some that he has. But the gold of Bromfield shines
| through,
L.J.
W.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 897, 12 October 1956, Page 14
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359A FARMERS'S LIFE New Zealand Listener, Volume 35, Issue 897, 12 October 1956, Page 14
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
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