Louis Bromfield

An Ohioan, a novelist, and aleader of the NewAgriculture, Louis BROMFIELD analyesalyzes the reasons which prompted the Farm vote in 1948 and may prompt it again in November. Mr. Bromfield recently took thirty-five American farmers with him on a tour of five South American countries at the request of their governments, the Farm Journal, and the Braniff Airlines. Those who are curious to see what can he done with once deserted fields are strongly advised to visit Mr. Bromfield’s Malabar Farm on the outskirts of Mansfield, Ohio.

An American novelist turned farmer, Louis BROMFIELD has been rousing all who will listen in his fight for conservation. In his vigorous speeches from coast to coast, and most of all by the yields he has produced with modern methods on his own Ohio farm, he has shown that run-down, eroded acres can be transformed into fertile, productive fields. In this article he speaks from his experience as Chairman of the Ohio Wildlife Division, and the paper will be part of his new book, Out of the Earth.

A novelist turned agronomist and now an American farmer with a Cause, Louis BROMFIELDhas been rousing the conscience of this country in the fight for conservation. In his books Pleasant Valley and Malabar Farm, in his vigorous speeches from coast to coast, and most of all by the yields he has produced with modern methods on his own Ohio farm, he has shown that run-down, eroded acres can be transformed into fertile, productive fields.

“Today the New Frontier in agricultural land of the South,”writes Louis BROMFIELD, ”offers as great opportunities as the First Frontier of virgin soil” and in this article which follows he gives challenging evidence of the fight which the Southern states have been making to revitalize their farms. A novelist with a keen zest for life, Mr. Bromfield in 1939 threw himself wholeheartedly into the fight for Conservation. The son and grandson of Ohio farmers, it came as a shock to him to realize how far the rich acreage of his home state had deteriorated: using every modern method, he has turned his own place, Malabar Farm, into a thriving model farm.

The son of an Ohio farmer, Louis BROMFIELD revivified and extended the acres which now comprise Malabar Farm. In the process he has learned that farmers can control many things, but not the weather. A veteran of the First World War, Mr. Bromfield wrote his first four novels in France. But in 1933 his book The Farm showed that his thoughts were returning to his home country in Ohio, and when he and his family came back for good in 1939, it was with the thought of re-establishing their roots in one of the most fertile sections of the Middle West. This article is drawn from his forthcoming book, Malabar Farm, to be published by Harper.

The son of an Ohio farmer, Louis BROMFIELDwent to Cornell in 1914 to study agriculture. It was the First It World War, in which he served as ambulance driver and liaison officer, which turned his thoughts to literature. His first four novels were written in France from his lovely place at Senlis. But in 1933, his book The Farm showed that his thoughts were returning to his home country in Ohio, and when in 1939 he bought his family home, it was with the incentive of revivifying the run-down, eroded acres which he has transformed into the fertile fields of Malabar Farm today. This is the first of two installments from his forthcoming book.