Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-06-18
NEW BOOKS
AT RANDOM
/. C. NJ.

H ". w.
TREE CROPS; A Permanent Agricul-
ture. j. Russell Smith. Harcourt,
Brace & Co.
"Tree Crops?" Yes, I know. You
have in mind the passion of Spring
verdancy, the thick Summer LEAKAGE,
bird songs and nest shelters. You are
picturing the Autumn glory of drifting
russell and gold, the enchanting tracery
of gray branch and twig against Win
ter sunset. Maybe you are seeing great
trees grouped in city parks or marching
grandly along the country highway.
Beauty is its own excuse for being
and sheer beauty is the harvest that
engages you here. Possibly, you are a
boy again, remindful of the old-fash-
Toned nuttings in the keen November
air where you disputed rights of pos
session with certain small creatures
driven by their true fore-sellse of Win
ter weathers and food shortage. In this
latter case you are seeing again the
great oak trees dropping their years
output of acorns among which pigs are
nuzzling with deep epicurean grunts of
joy. Wrong? Wrong, all around, you
say? 1 might have known it. For here
is scientist, not mere man; sci
enlist engrossed in profound and far
reaching matters.
y 4 X
And here he is. And here is his en-
groSSment. The great, sustaining
Mother Earth is being washed away.
The only thing that can save it in its
capacity to support life is an agriculture
whose nature and habit are such as to
stop this wash of soil, to fasten it to
the earth crust of it's origin. Trees, and
oil rNF coil
salvage. That the process of denuda-
ton may take inmeaSurable years of
time, millions of these in fact, does not
alter the ultimate catastrophe. Fro
sion," the geologist calls this down-f1ow
of land, finally into the sea, under the
urge of pelting storm and running
stream. Erosion is, therefore, the basic
consideration from which the theory of
a radically new agriculture is projected
by Russell Smith.
Trees for food, shelter cloJhing-does
he mean that? Pretty much lust that.
Exactly just that if in the course of
ages the earth is not to be stripped of
it's sustaining SOIL And the dirt
farmer" snarls Dreamer, visionary,
theorist!" and goes on with his digging.
All of these, he may be. Yet this is no
apocalyptic vision. 1t is instead, mathe-
NAUTICAL calculation whose answer, def
mite and indisputable, issues from the
relation of all its parts,
X X X X
To go along with this writer one must
be able to climb high and to look wide.
For, in this case, the entire surface of
the earth must come under scrutiny, the
geological processes of time itself must
in certain directions come within ones
grasp. So, If your imagination can
seize upon no more than a couple OF
generations to the rear and another
couple to the fore, why, then, stay at
home. Don't go with this man whose
mind Is of racial scope and interest,
movingS of the earth making patterns
upon its surface.
+ X +
Wheat, corn, oats, barley, cotton, rice,
and the rest, will, in the long run, be
the soils undoing. And how? From
the fact that these growthS depend
upon a constant stirring and loosening
and freeing of the soil for it's ready re-
moval from every upland by rain action
and stream action. You can see readily,
now that it is put before you, that the
complete stripping of the rock founda-
ton is but a question of time, since
weathering of the rocks to form soil is
slow and inf1nitesimal process. The
sweep of free soil takes no time at all
in comparison.
Who started us upon this destructive
way? A woman. No, not Eve, who, at
the most, did no more than little
fancy gardening. Instead, this first
agriculturist was some primitive mother
digging outside her cave for bits of
things-rootS, seeds, whatnot-for the
young ones to chew upon. Then, being
also the worlds first inventor, this
woman hit upon the cunning device of
tucking some of the dried seeds back
into the ground-just to see what would
come of it. And farming was on it's
way. The long, long way of fitting the
soil for grains-the way that, according
to Mr.. Smith, is, If continued, to bring
the doom Of bare rocks and a foodless
future upon the entire surface of the
earth.
Much the larger part of this study is
taken up with trees in respect to their
food value, in respect to their fitness for
the job of ultimately feeding the world,
and, at the same time, of holding the
sustaining part of the earth together as
a working basis of existence itself. This
is most interesting, the most interest
ing, section of the study. But it is too
long for touch here. Some other time,
1t will have to come into the open as
pure revelation of tree agriculture. New
and astonishing tree facts, the world
around, contribute here first to the
theory under discussion, and then to the
deep curiosity of intelligent folks con-
corning this fresh outlook upon a great
natural resource.
Russell Smiths prime purpose here,
beyond that OF setting the facts of the
case before readers, is to enlist an in
telligent, enthusiastic, patriotic support
Of the theory of tree agriculture. And
there is difficulty. Government sup
port IS as fickle as changes in the per-
sonnet of Office. Private enterprise, too,
Is eager for prompt results. Almost
every one is, In effect, Little Jackey
Horner," self-announcing, lf-glorify-
ing. And this tree business Is a long
time security, for which the majority
have no taste. Land enough to last out
our time" is the somewhat hard-boiled
attitude that Is almost certain to meet
this great truth and its greater enter
prise.
The method of this book is admirable
since it takes into its first account both
the value of readers time and also
the readers common inability to seize
upon the vital parts of discussion
Therefore, at the start, the author sub
mits a How to Read This Book" Here
Is the How:
"This book can be read in four ways,
depending on your hurry and your In
terest:
First, look at the pictures and the
legends and you have the essence of it.
Second, read the first three short
chapters and you have the idea. This
might be followed by the last two chap
ters to get similar general statement
of the applications.
Third, read the large print and you
have the argument as an economist
might want it.
Fourth, read the fine print and you