MAXUEES AND THEIR APPLICATION. 303 



stances, phosphates and nitrogenous matter, and it showed also 

 that these were the materials which were being lost to the soil 

 by the exports of the farm, and that it was a due supply of them 

 that was needed to maintain the farm in its fertility and even to 

 increase that fertility if desired. 



The demand for artificial manures containino; these inofredi- 

 ents increased very rapidly, until now about a million sterling 

 is annually expended by farmers in Scotland in the purchase of 

 bones, guano, superphosphate, nitrogenous and potassic manures. 



The effect of this enormous importation of fertilising materials 

 upon the land, has been to entirely change the face of agriculture, 

 and to bring about a revolution whose effects we are only now 

 beginning to feel. 



In addition to this importation, there is another one of great 

 magDitude and scarcely less important, viz., the importation of 

 feeding cakes and feeding stuffs of all kinds. Their consumption 

 on the farm adds to the fertility of the soil, as surely and perhaps 

 even more economically and permanently than their equivalent 

 of artificial manure. 



I have compared the old method of farming to the working 

 out of a mine, where the riches were in the soil, and only 

 required to be brought out by an expenditure of labour. But in 

 the new method of farming the riches are not in the soil except 

 to an unprofitable amount, and they require to be imported. 

 The soil is now in the position of a workshop furnished with the 

 means of converting the raw material supplied to it in the form 

 of manure into the finished article of corn, beef, mutton, or other 

 produce. 



The ready availability of artificial manures, the ease with 

 which they can be applied and the rapidity of their action, 

 enable the farmer, who is not otherwise restricted, to enjoy a 

 freedom of cropping and manipulating of his farm that was quite 

 impossible under the old system. There is no doubt that this 

 has, in many cases, been attended with the happiest results, while 

 in others, although the energy with which the farmer has taken 

 advantage of his freedom may be creditable to his enterprise, the 

 results have frequently been profitable neither to himself nor to 

 his landlord. 



I shall just mention a few of these. He has been enabled 

 to extend the amount of his arable land often far beyond the 

 limits indicated by the amount of farmyard manure that can 

 be made on the farm, even with the increased value of that 

 material derived from the consumption of artificial food. 

 The success of this change depends very much on the natural 

 strength of the land and on the climatic conditions to which it 

 is exposed. With a good soil and a fair climate the alteration 

 may be a protital)le one, but if the soil l)e poor and the weather 



