PROGRESS OF ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. £19 



great acquirements as a botanist had not prevented his attending to other 

 branches of science, had noticed in 1842 some nodules at Felix Stowe, on the 

 coast of Suffolk. In 1843, haunted with the idea that they were something 

 of importance, he returned to Felix Stowe, collected a quantity of them, and 

 placed them in the hands of a Mr. Potter for analysis. The analysis showed 

 them to be fossils, commonly called coprolites, on the supposition that they 

 consisted of animal excrement, and containing from 50 to 55 per cent, of 

 phosphate of lime. From this discovery Professor Henslow might have real- 

 ized <a considerable fortune. The quarry of coprolites was to be had at a com- 

 mon rent, and there were manure manufacturers prepared to pay for the 

 information, but he " did not consider such a course consistent with his posi- 

 tion as a man of science and a clergyman," and after keeping silence on the 

 subject for some months at the request of Mr. Potter, " who wished to have 

 the chance of availing himself of the discovery," he gave the results of his 

 investigation to Mr. J. B. Lawes, who made the superphosphate obtained 

 from coprolites the subject of a patent, which he was not able to maintain. 

 Subsequently, beds of coprolites were discovered in Cambridgeshire, Hamp- 

 shire, and Dorsetshire, and further investigations in Morway placed Mr. Lawes 

 in the exclusive possession of great beds of another fossil called apatite, rich in 

 phosphates — of which he imports whole cargoes for his manufactory at Bow, 

 near London. The superphosphate of lime, however, produced from fossils 

 being much less soluble than that from fresh bones, can only be usefully ap- 

 plied when mixed in moderate proportions with the latter. 



One other important addition to the portable manures was discovered about 

 seven years ago by Mr. Odams, in the blood and garbage of the London 

 slaughter-houses, which, formerly thrown down sewers and upon dung-heaps, 

 is now contracted for to the extent of nearly eight hundred thousand gallons 

 a year. Mixed with ground or calcined bonee and sulphuric acid, it is con- 

 verted into powerful corn and root fertilizer, known to agriculturists as the 

 " Nitro-phosphate manure." The mere fact that these products were articles 

 of sale, and not of home manufacture by the farmer, had a powerful influence 

 in extending their use. Those on whom the essays of Professors and the ora- 

 tions of landlords produced little effect, were worried into inquiry by the 

 agents of manure venders, and as the new practice spread, were convinced 

 almost against their will by great crops in the fields of their enterprising 

 neighbors. The vender of artificial manures helped in another particular the 

 general movement. He soon discovered that his fertilizing stimulants were 

 robbed of half their value on wet or ill-cultivated land. Hence he became 

 the eager advocate of thorough drainage, and that thoiough preparation of 

 the soil which can only be effected by the best class of plows, harrows, horse- 

 hoes, and clod crushers. His customers would have been customers no longer, 

 unless he could have convinced them that the fault was in themselves, and not 

 in the gojds. He argued to ears which had at last been opened, and prevailed 

 without the assistance of the hedge-stake. A man grudged growing weeds 

 with the fertility for which he had paid in hard cash, nor could a manure that 

 cost 10/. or 12/. a ton be refused the economy of a machine to distribute it 

 carefully ; and thus drill husbandry, which is identified with clean husbandry, 

 spread, led by pipe-drains, from Norfolk, Suffolk, and Bedfordshire, into every 

 county of England, and with it brought all the machines and implements 

 required for " clean, rapid, concentrated cultivation." 



It was between 181G and 1836 — the twenty years in which the breaking up 

 of poor pastures and the reclamation of waste lands were most vigorously 

 carried on by the means of turnip-drilling, sheep-folding, and the four-course 

 rotation — that the crude forms of the greater number of the agricultural im- 

 plements which are now considered "standard," were either invented or 

 brought into use among the great light land farmers. In general the ingen- 

 uity of the mechanic outstripped the wants of the cultivator, and many excel- 

 lent contrivances had been forgotten, because thev were in advance of the 



