INCREASED CROP PRODUCTION 107 



It is customary to argue from these figures that 

 the British farmer is greatly behind the Continental 

 farmer in the use of artificial fertilizers. The force 

 of the indictment is somewhat discounted by two im- 

 portant considerations :- 



1. In Germany a considerable area of the cultivated 

 land is light and sandy, and therefore specially needs 

 potash, while in England great areas are heavy or 

 loamy soils, which do not respond to potash except 

 for special crops. 



2. Germany grows great quantities of sugar-beet, 

 which specially needs potash, while we do not grow 

 this crop. 



Further, the table omits altogether the enormous 

 amount of feeding-cakes and meals imported from 

 abroad and fed in the cattle-yards and sheep-folds of 

 Great Britain, quantities which, in proportion to our 

 acreage, are far in excess of those imported into 

 Germany before the war. All these go to enrich our 

 farmyard manure, and therefore our land. 



The management of this manure leaves much to 

 be desired, and a great deal of the combined nitrogen 

 is at present dissipated ; but the subject is being in- 

 vestigated, and there is reason to hope that consider- 

 able improvements may be obtained. 



I do not suggest that we have yet reached a limit 

 to the amount of fertilizers we can use. Many of our 

 backward farmers can do more than they have done, 

 and some of our poor grass-land and waste land can 

 come into cultivation. I do not think, however, that 

 the best farmers could well use much more artificials 

 than they do at present. The following estimates of 



is given in T. H. Middleton's German Agriculture (Cd. 8305), p. 36, where 

 the phosphatic and nitrogen fertilizers are calculated as 30 per cent super- 

 phosphate and sulphate of ammonia, respectively. 



