304 MANUEES AND THEIR APPLICATION 



unfavourable there is likely to be a loss rather than a gain. It- 

 is one great disadvantage of artificial manures that their success 

 is much dependent on the weather ; during a wet season a con- 

 siderable proportion of them is carried down through the soil and 

 run off by the drains, while if the season be very dry they are 

 in great measure prevented from coming into operation. 



In increasing the proportion of arable land it has also fre- 

 quently happened that old pastures on hillsides have been broken 

 up which should never have been touched. The steepness of the 

 land and the great wash to which it is subjected during the winter 

 fallow make it very ill suited for cultivation even at the best. 

 There is no doubt that much of the land which has been so 

 treated has during the succession of bad seasons we have just 

 experienced proved a great loss to our farmers on the Border, 

 and it is likely that it will prove still more so in the future, for 

 the vigour of the virgin soil has now been cropped away, and to 

 maintain the land in its fertility will take a large expenditure of 

 manure, and in many cases be more costly than putting it back 

 into pasture. 



Another disadvantage attending the use of artificial manures 

 is that it has enabled the farmer to work the land down to a 

 lower state of fertility than was permitted under the old system. 

 The facility with which a crop can be produced on a poor soil 

 by the action of a few hundred-weights of manure do'es not 

 impose upon the farmer the same necessity for keeping his land 

 in high condition — that is to say, in a condition in which a large 

 reserve of available nourishment is lying stored up in the soil — 

 as was necessary under the old system of farming. 



What the average amount of depression in the fertility of the 

 soil amounts to per acre I have not been able to determine, owing 

 to the want of accurate statistics, but that a marked depression 

 does exist there can be no doubt. It must be familiar to many 

 of you that the effects of artificial manure applied in these days 

 is feeble in comparison with what it was forty years ago. This 

 is a sure sim that the land has been reduced in condition. 



Again, it is unfortunate that the use of artificial manures has 

 in the minds of many diminished the importance of farmyard 

 manure so much that its manufacture and preservation do not 

 receive the amount of care and attention that they ought to 

 do. Not only so, but it has come to be the fashion in some 

 quarters to regard farmyard manure as an antiquated, barbarous 

 kind of application, and even books are not wanting, enjoying a 

 wide circulation which treat of artificial manures, as if they were 

 the only scientific manures. They formulate and measure out 

 the doses of each particular ingredient for each particular crop 

 with the nicety of an apothecary, as if differences in soils and 

 climate did not exist, while farmyard manure, the king of all 



