Serfs on a Fief
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
"Doc..., I want to tell you something." B.J. shuffled his feet- knees spread out a bit- leaning forward, resting his forearms on his knees, hands folded as a grim look came across his face. "Most of the world doesn't give a flying flak jacket about a farm like ours going under. Now, I know I've not been the best farmer in the world, and most of this trouble is my own fault. But you talk to anybody about losing your farm- and I've heard this from other guys that have lost out- and all most people think of is that it's just another business going under, like a store, or a garage, or something like that. Can't they see that, it's a home, not just a farm, that we're losing? Don't they know how hard it is for us- even the best of us, the ones that make out pretty well- that if we all had a fairer return for our time- our labor, hours and hours- and for our investment, most of us so-called 'failures' would have gotten along without any trouble? And a few of us might even make what the city twerps make. But, hell, there's no mercy." "They don't know, B.J." said Sean. "They don't know what it is." "I know. And as long as they've got food in their mouths, they don't give a shit!" "I'm with you, B.J. I've thought a lot about it. But I think, someday, the time is coming when the world is going to ask where all the food went." "Or they'll say, "Why does it cost so much all of a sudden?" said B.J. Sean nodded, as he added, "And then, they'll look around and ask where all the farmers went." "I hope I live to see that day," said B.J. "And then they'll start asking the politicians what happened, and they won't know the answer. After all, how many of them ever did any real muscle work in their lives?" Sean added a comment. "And then, do you suppose there'll be hell to pay--? Like- 'off with their heads,' with a few refurbished guillotines imported from France? And think of Ireland- the potato famine. You know, I've read that farm production was a real concern for our founding fathers. They had seen what had just happened in France, and they wanted to be sure we had plenty of food over here. Did everything they could to encourage production. Better too much, than too little." "Well," said B.J., "isn't it still that way? Even now our ag colleges keep pushing that idea. Now, I must say, surplus food is great. I'm all for it, but when there's a surplus, what happens to us farmers?" "Of course," said Sean. "Then they try to tell you that if you'd only stop overproducing, you'd make more money!
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
As indicated by its title, Serfs On A Fief is a muckraking novel with a fervid political theme about America's languishing agricultural population. Following the family of a fictional dairy farm vet in the setting of the bucolic Susquehanna basin, it is salted with colorful everyday vignettes, both humorous and tragic. Even the uninitiated non-farm reader is made to feel at home as he is introduced to rural personalities, sly cattle dealers, obstreperous farmers, as well as vet and agriculture students of the recent, kinder past, gradually presaging a predictable economic plight for vast numbers of our present-day "serfs." Besides a tragedy at a fair and a rabies outbreak, there are several other excursions into the ethical, medical and surgical aspects of a vet's dairy practice. A romance and marriage, peppered with deceit, struggling consciences, heritage lost and found, plus disguised intrigue at society's highest levels lead to a cataclysmic close in accordance with the novel's title, designed to leave both the urban and rural reader bewildered over the currently unfolding crisis in our most indispensable industry... the national food chain.
About the Author
Born in central New York early in the Depression and, with three siblings, soon orphaned, Gene Thomas Kemp was adopted and joined a family including newspaper reporters, teachers, shopkeepers and doctors. Receiving a degree as Doctor of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University, he settled into veterinary practice in the Southern Tier of New York State, near the Pennsylvania line. For forty-three years, he worked with the farmers of that region, specializing in the reproductive problems of dairy cattle. Serving on school boards as well as the local board of health, Gene was able to observe a broad spectrum of triumphs and failures of policies and people. The impetus for writing sprang from a desire to share these observations with others when retired.