Big Hugh's message: One-man's task!

Excerpt

THE last time I saw Hugh Bennett, we were having lunch as guests at an agricultural experiment station T in Brazil. There on separate missions, our meeting was accidental. We had little time for conversation, and before I finished my meal, I saw him, soil auger in hand, on his way to the field.

“Hugh,” I had asked before he left, “after all your countless studies and observations, at home and abroad, what is the most important thing you have learned?” Without hesitation he replied, “…that a man can make his soil better than what nature provided for his use.”

Without hesitation he replied, “…that a man can make his soil better than what nature provided for his use”.

In terms of constructive usefulness to mankind, Hugh Bennett was perhaps the greatest man of our century.

From the beginning of his concern with soil erosion, he saw one irreversible fact-only one man could …