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The time has come , the walrus said , to talk of many things , of birds and bees and humming things , and cabbages and kings . So runs the vein of childhood's famous book , " Alice in Wonderland . " Coming along the Blooming Valley road this afternoon I saw a farmer's wag- the on full of cabbage and chunk wood . See , here we have it , here are cabbages and the farmers are the kings , if they only know it . But they will be kings of their domains only so long as they retain the control of their fields . When any bureaucratic set - up is allowed to step in and lay down rules and mandates : " Thou shalt not plant this , thou shalt not ent thy timber , thou shalt not plow this field " then we no longer have a free agriculture , we no longer have the freedom of our fields . Six or seven years ago this " soil conservation district " business tried to creep into Oceana county , quietly , little noticed , like it did into some other jurisdictions , by passing the word along to the gravy train boys that they and their wives were expected to turn out and vote for it some unsuspecting day while the rank and file of the farmers would hardly know what was going on . But it didn't work in Oceana county . The soil bureaucrats were met with a Lexington and Concord and Bunkerhill , and the county folks were up and to arms . Columns in the public press were used to show up the things hidden in the wood pile . how the farmers could be fined and jailed if they did not conform with any of the so - called land - use regulations . That is exactly the way the obnoxious law read . But Oceana voted the forming of a soil district The next morning down by an overwhelming majority of ten to one .
after the election Lansing woke up and rubbed its eyes . The election cutcome didn't sound so good to the soil experts , many of whom couldn't earn their salt if they had to get out and run a farm for them- selves like the common dirt farmers . They felt like they had been knocked right between the eyes . And they took counsel among them- selves to see what they should do . They said among themselves : " The eyes of Michigan are upon us . Not only has Oceana sorked ns in the eve , but after all this publicity all the other counties may look upon our district forming with suspicion . We simply will have to change that law and toke out some of the obnoxious clauses . " So they con- sented to amendmente , like a lion lying down to have its teeth pulled
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