The Story of Farmer Harry

I've been on holiday for two weeks as you may know so, since I haven't had a chance to write a serious post yet, I thought I'd get back on the blogging-horse as soon as possible and post this fairytale that I wrote last October, along with a few illustrations I drew for it. I'm not an expert on farming so some parts are probably a bit questionable, but I hope you can forgive those bits and enjoy the story. And appreciate the moral of course.

The Story of Farmer Harry

Once there was a young man called Harry. He was from a poor farming family so as soon as he could he set out to seek his fortune. He travelled the country for a number of years, never getting any richer, until one night he got so drunk that he fell into a deep sleep. While he slept another man came and stole the little he had left. So Harry had no choice but to return to the village where he was born and try to make a living from farming.

   Harry’s father was old and had divided up his land between his sons while Harry was away so upon his return the son found that he had been left the worst field full of poor, sandy soil that hardly yielded any crops. But the young man was determined, because he couldn’t ask Emily to marry him without an income, so he ploughed the field and sewed it with wheat.

   When the time for reaping came the wheat grew short and sparse with small, scrawny ears and the soil beneath was even poorer and sandier than before. Still, Harry wasn’t one to give up easily so he went to visit the West Wind, because he’d noticed that when the soil got dry the wind would blow it away.

   The West Wind lived at the top of the highest hill with the steepest sides. When the young man got there the Wind was howling and billowing around the hilltop. Harry shouted: “West Wind! How can I stop you and your brothers blowing the soil of my field away?”

   Suddenly, all was still and quiet and the man heard the Wind murmur in his ear, “What will you do if I tell you the secret?”

   “Anything!” said the young man, “I’ll do anything.”

   “If I tell you the secret you must promise me to use it wisely and treat it like the wind would. Otherwise everything you grow will be taken from you.”

   Harry didn’t understand what the wind meant about using the secret wisely but he agreed hurriedly and the West Wind told him what he had to do.

   Next, Harry went to the forest to find the Queen of the bees because he’d also noticed that insects had been eating his crops. The wild bees lived in a bright clearing which was full of late summer flowers and the humming of a thousand insects.

   He called out: “Queen Bee! How can I stop your cousins from eating my crops?”

   All the bees went very quiet and the man heard the Queen of the Bees whisper in his ear, “what will you do if I tell you the secret?”

   “I’ll do anything!” he said.

   “If I tell you the secret you must promise me to use it wisely and treat it like the bees would. Otherwise everything you grow will be taken from you.”

   Again, Harry didn’t quite understand but he agreed eagerly and the Queen of the Bees told him what he had to do.

   Finally, the young man went to see the Wise Woman because he’d noticed that his field was on a slope over which the rain ran quickly making the soil dryer and sandier than ever. She lived in a tiny dark cottage on the edge of the village and people went to her in secret when they had a problem that they couldn’t find a solution to. They didn’t do so casually; it was said that she had the power to predict the future and even weave magic spells.

   He knocked on the door and went inside, the Wise Woman was hunched up in a chair and wrapped tightly in blankets. Harry asked: “Wise Woman, how can I stop the rain running over the tops of my field instead of soaking into the soil?”

   The old woman closer her eyes and said in a creaky voice, “what will you do if I give you the secret?”

   “I’ll do anything,” replied the young man.

   “If I tell you the secret you must promise to use it wisely and treat it like an old person would. Otherwise everything you grow will be taken from you.”

   Again, Harry didn’t completely understand but he agreed earnestly and the Wise Woman told him what he had to do.

The next spring when he ploughed his field he followed the West Winds advice and planted beans and clover between the rows of wheat so that the wind couldn’t get at the soil. Then, as the Queen of the Bees told him, he planted chamomile and marigolds around the edge of the field to keep the insects away. Finally he followed the Wise Womans instructions and dug a deep ditch along the top of the field and put sand and stones in the bottom of it so that when it rained heavily the ditch caught the water and allowed it to flow through the soil instead of over the top.

   By harvest time Harry had so much wheat that he had to build a larger barn to store it in! People from the village wondered at the young man’s good fortune. His brothers had all suffered hard years, losing portions of their crops to insects and bad weather, and they asked Harry what he had done to grow so much wheat. But he remembered what the Wind, the bees and the Wise Woman had told him about using the secrets wisely and refused to tell anyone.

   That autumn a strong wind came blowing down from the hills and when Harry went to his barn he found that the wind had forced the door open and blown a large part of his crops away! He was disappointed but locked the doors firmly, telling himself that there was well over half left.

   Not long afterwards a great swarm of insects was seen flying over the fields. All the farmers rushed to check their harvests but the only person to find any food missing was Harry who had lost half of his remaining crop to the ravenous insects.

   A few days later black storm clouds came marching inland from the sea and the heavy rain that they brought lasted a whole week. When the downpour finally stopped Harry found that it had washed the last of his crop away.

   Downcast and ashamed he went to Emily to tell her that they couldn’t marry. And he explained to her everything that had happened, beginning with asking the West Winds advice to losing everything he had worked for all year.

   At first she was sad too but then she began to think and she finally asked, “what exactly did the Wind say to do with the secret?”

   “To use it wisely and treat it like the wind would,” replied Harry.

   “Then you should have spread the secret!” she cried, “because the wind spreads everything it can pick up. What did the Queen of the Bees tell you to do?”

   “To use it wisely and treat it like the bees would.”

   “Then you should have told your brothers about it when they asked!” she said, “because bees work together and share everything among themselves. And what about the Wise Woman? What did she say?”

   “To use the secret wisely and treat it like an old person would,” replied Harry.

   “Then you should have passed it on,” laughed Emily, “because the elderly pass on their knowledge to the next generation.”

   “Of course!” said Harry, “but what can I do now? I don’t have any money or food to last the winter.”

   “You still have the secrets,” she replied, “tell them to your brothers in exchange for food for this winter, then next year everyone will have good harvests. We can marry in the autumn.”

   So that’s exactly what Harry did, and his father gave the couple his most sincere blessing.

Moral: community is better than competition. Things are better when we work together than when we try to beat one another and act selfishly.

This story is dedicated to Richard Spalding and Alan (really sorry can't remember his surname!), two of my lecturers who are genuinely questioning a lot of the practices in agriculture and development which we take for granted, and who taught me to question them too.