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Charles Alma Baker's Kinta Valley Estate - Part 2
These two photographs also from "Imperial Patriot", with kind permission of the author, Barrie Macdonald, show more from the Kinta Valley Estate :
On the left, labourers turning over a compost heap in April 1939. Those 'supervising' are, from left to right, H F (Hutch) Hutchinson, Lionel Whitaker, Charles Alma Baker and Roderick Whitaker;
and, on the right, a section of the rubber estate and water supply pond in 1916 with Judy (Judy Baker), Floss ( Mrs Florence Baker) and Barney (Charles Alma Baker) on the right.
Regarding the picture on the left, Baker had very clear views on the benefits of organic farming against chemical fertilisers, and at one stage said (29 September 1939) :
"The necessity to recognise the need to proceed piecemeal with organic manuring is a concession to practical difficulties and not a departure from principle. It cannot be too strongly stressed that our ultimate objective is complete organic fertilisation : artificials are named as harmful, contrary to natural Biological laws and they must go. Artificials can however only be abandoned when organics are available to every farmer in sufficient quantities and at economic prices : no stone may be left unturned to achieve that position."
Clearly he was ahead of his time with these views.
To go to Part 1, click here.