The Generation Gap-WHY? - Herbert W. Armstrong

N ovember , 1968
Allgllst over the main com-g rowing
belt. In September there were these
great floods. Our cereals expert was
looking back through our records and
taking all in all, we can't really J/lggel
t a year when things were so
diffic/llt otter s/lch a wide area!"
Ambassador College, U. K., fortunately,
had decided to let our farmland
lie fallow this year, so our experimental
farm program has suffered very little
from these unusually heavy rains.
When M ildew Strikes
Many people do not realize the destructive
power of crop diseases such
as the plant fungi called mildew ­
which sometimes runs rampant in wet
weather.
Britain's Ministry of Agriculture's
plant pathologists have recently turned
up some start ling figures. " Last year
M ILDEW alone . . . reduced average
barley yields by something between 20
and 2.5 percent, over the country as
a whole.. .
"Altogether one can put a conservative
figure in the region of £.50m.
($ 120 million ) a year 011 the losses
due to these diseases alone. . .
" In other words corn growers have
to carry every year losses of a similar
magnitude to those the livestock
breeders suffered from foot-and-mouth
this season." But those losses are for
normal years. Mildew damage of crops
in Britain will be much higher than
normal for 1968.
There is a joke going around here
in Britain. A friend went into a
restaurant to have lunch. While he was
eating, the clouds parted and the sun
came out for a short time. My friend
lamented the fact that summer came ­
and went - while he was having his
lunch !
Can Rain Cause Famine ?
From A.D . 10 until A.D. 1846,
there have been 210 recorded famines
in the British Isles. The vast majority
were caused, not so much by drought,
but by too milch RA IN and resultant
mildew.
What caused the great famine of
1257-59 ?
"The harvest of 1256 had been
The PLAI N TRUTH
spoiled by wet, and the weather of
the spring of 1257 was wretched 10
the extreme. All England was in a state
of marsb and mnd, and the roads were
impassable" (Histo,.y of Epidemic
Diseases in Britain by Creighton) .
"Whatever had been sown in winte r,
whatever had germinated in spring,
whatever the summer had brought
forward - all was drown ed in the
floods of autumn" ( Matthew Paris,
Chronicler of St. Albans) .
In 1258: " RaiJ1J set in before the
corn could be cut, and at the Feast
of All Saints [1 No vember} the
heavy rrups had rolled until the fields
were like so man)' dlm gheaps" ( His tory
of Epidemic Diseases in Britain by
Creighton) .
Th e next great famine occurred 10
1315. "Wit h the new crop ruined as
it was by rains and floods, the scarcity
lessened somewhat, but not before
many felt the pinch of hunger and
others were seen lying squalid and
dead in the villages and by the road
sides...
"Ordinary flesh was not to be had,
but horse-flesh was eaten, fat dogs were
stolen to eat and it was rumoured
abroad that in many places both men
and u'omen secretly ate the flesh of
their ou-n children Or of the children
of others. But the detail . .. [which}
posterity will be most horrified to read,
is that prisoners in gaols [ jails] set
upon the thieves newly brought in and
devoured them alive" (ibid.)
The English harvest of 1622 was a
very poor une: "Though the latter part
of this summer proved so far seasonable,
yet the harvest is scant, and corn
at a great price by reason of the
mildeu-s and blasting generally Ot' ef the
whole realm" (C OIl/·t and Times of
[antes I, II. 333 1) .
Nea rly two centuries later we read:
"The winter of 1815-16 had been
unusually prolonged, so that the sowing
and planting of 1816 were late. They
were hardly over when a rain)' sum mer
began, which led to a ruined harvest
. . . in wheat-growing districts, the
grain sprouted in the sheaf; the
potatoes were a poor yield and
watery" (History of Epidemics ill
Britain by Creighton) .
23
Th ese are only a few of the many
historical references. They clearly reveal
that too milch rain, resulting in mildew
and rotting of grain in the fields of
Britain, have repeatedly led to famines
ravaging the British Isles.
Even the Great Potato Famine of
the mid-19th century in Ireland was
due, at least in great measure, to a
very wet year in which the potatoes
rotted in the fi elds. The summer was
so wet that fuel could not be obtained
from the peat bogs. This, in turn, tesuIted
in a cold, underfed Irish population
which fell easy prey to the typhus
plague. Also, English overlords insisted
that the Irish farmers send the
little grain they managed to harvest to
England to pay the rent due on the
lands which they farmed. Th e combined
result was millions of deaths from
starvation and disease and mass emigration
from Ireland to American
industrial centers.
T his catastroph ic summer has been
disastrous to Britain. Repeated floods
and storms are adding many millions
of pounds of liabilities on an already.
overburdened pound Sterling. Britain
will find it even more difficult to balance
her budget if she has to continue
to import man)' millions of pounds
worth of hay, grains and foodstuffs
which she would normally be able to
grow .
" Rain . . . in Due Season !"
W hat the weather experts have somehow
overlooked is that God Almighty
is the One who really controls the
weather. Only He can send the rain
" in due season." Only He can make
sure that we do not receive too mucb
rain, causing mildew. Or / 0 0 IiI/Ie,
causing drought and blasting.
The Creator would gladly send the
rains in due season if we would only
quit doing the things that cause us
harm and begin to obey Him.
May God Almighty help us to quit
harming ourselves - to quit lying,
stealing, murdering, committ ing adultery,
and approving homosexuality ­
and to return to Him in truth and
sincerity - so that He can bless us with
good weather - with "rain in due
season" !