Bradley beam., 1944-07-15
R SPEAKING $
 JoE PRIVATE SAYS
A Htfle farm DeH filled 4 little barn 0ceH filled A ittle yife uyeH silIed
 GiDe me, give me.
JoE PRIVATE SAYS !;

GiDe ue, give me.
 - James Hook.
 That's the first stanza of a poem entitled "The Soldiers Return and it's NOT contemporary. It was written during the Revolutionary War when soldiers, as now, had their hearts and minds set on the ownership of green pastures.
 For you who are interested in the back-to-the-farm movement in your postwar world we have chos- en for review books which will be of interest and value to you. Springs first crop doesn't always come from the ground. It breaks in fresh leaf from the nations print ing presses in the form of advice to urban dwellers.
 Two of the best of this springs crop are "So You're Going to Buy a Farm" by D. B. Greenberg and Charles Corbin, and "Five Acres and Independence" by M. G. Rains. The former is intended to furnish you with the "know how," giving you concrete facts on what to look for in the way of a farm, where to find it, and how to get the most for your money. It goes sensibly into the questions of how much land is needed for truck gardening, poultry raising, etc., the question of prob able cash return, help that can be expected to finance the project, how to compare farms and judge them, what you should know about soils and fertilizers, and a chapter call- ed "Brass Tacks" to tell you how to keep expenses down, how to ex- pand slowly and mechanize with caution.
 "Five Acres and Independence" shows how easily you can own a small farm and make it pay. The author begins with a warning, by pointing out the "tried and true ways to fail" at intensive farming. He ends his book with appendices, to the number of 51, compiled as ready helps to farmers looking for tested and approved methods. In between the "warnings" and the helps are 51 chapters dealing with practically every phase of farming the small farm for profit. It is a sound book, written by a practical and experienced farmer who him. self has made a success of farming and a success of living.
 For the more professional agri- culturist is "Plowman's Folly" by E. H. Faulkner, an unorthodox, op- timistic, thought-provoking book. His pet thesis is that the blow is not only the least satisfactory of all implements ever devised to aid in the production of crops, but di- rectly responsible for practically all of the problems in connection with agriculture which we as a nation of individuals now face. Wide spread attention to this book will interest people in the war against land erosion.
 All people, whether they plan to till the land or not, will enjoy read ing "Sense of Humus," by Bertha Damon. With ready wit, Mrs. Da- mon writes of her own New Hamp- shire farm and describes the diffi- culties of gardening among the rocks and lack of humus. It is the top flight book on that country living in which so many of us plan to seek peace and security.
 Now for our weekly feature A BOOK FOR EACH MANS IN- TEREST.
 For Harry Melzer: the book "About Your Dog," by R. S Lem mon.
 For Sgt. Elkins: "Letter Writing in Wartime" by Reeder, will make the answering of those 72 letters much easier!
 For Pfc. Taylor: try "Astrology for Everyone," by Evangeline Adams. for inc answer to your fu-