The Boy With a Drum

There once was a boy 

With a little toy drum . . . . .

They all marched along 

With a rat a tat tat

The boy with his drum 

And the big friendly cat

And the horse and the cow

And the mouse and the dog

And the duck and the chicken

And the pig and the frog . . . . 

I've been reciting this story/poem to Yeled whenever he has trouble settling down to sleep.  The story is charming and sweet and has a irresistible rhythm that never fails to put Yeled sleep.  It struck me, a few nights ago, reciting for about the 200th time in as many weeks, that the story mirrors closely the ideas of self sufficiency and responsible small scale farming.  My Complete Book of Self Sufficiency that I quoted a few days ago repeatedly makes the point that nature abhors monoculture.  He talks about having small numbers of many different animals, rotating a variety of crops, and growing different crops together or several different types of trees.  He recommends having cows, a horse, sheep, goats, a couple species of poultry, and pigs.  Well, pigs are out of question for us but we want to have a little of everything else.

Given the publishing date on my copy of The Boy With a Drum, I doubt the author was simply writing a charming story introducing g children.  The more times I recite the thing, the more convinced I am that the author is mirroring the experience of small farmers everywhere, raising a variety of animals and crops that suite the land.

The more times one plants the same crop on the same piece of land, the more likely that crop is to eventually fall prey to disease.  Rotation and variety are the keys to not only keeping the land healthy but ensuring that crops and animals remain disease free.  The focus of modern commercial farms on just one or two market-oriented animals or crops is one of the primary reason why our farm land is struggling.  I want to grow and raise lots of different things to rehab the land and keep it healthy.