220 THE SYSTEM OF FARM-YARD MANURING. 



bobritzscli, comparatively poorer in straw-constituents, 

 required 85 cwt. of farm-yard manure more than the 

 Kotitz field, to enable it to maintain, in its increased pro- 

 duce, the same proportion of corn and straw (1 : 2) as in 

 the crop from the unmanured plot. 



These considerations might, perhaps, lead the practical 

 farmer to the conviction that he is, after all, not much of 

 a free agent in the cultivation of his fields, and that the 

 ' facts and circumstances ' which guide him in his pro- 

 ceedings are simply laws of nature, of whose existence 

 he has scarcely any conception. In truth, it may be said 

 that the agriculturist is a free agent only in his wrong- 

 doings. If he acts in accordance with his own interest, 

 he must allow himself to be guided, even though imcon- 

 sciously, by the condition of his land ; and the only 

 matter for wonder is, how far the man of ' experience ' 

 has succeeded in this way. 



A system of farming, to be called truly rational^ must 

 be exactly suited to the nature and condition of the soil ; 

 for it is only when the rotation of crops or the mode 

 of manuring is conformable to the composition of the 

 soil, that the farmer has a sure prospect of realising the 

 highest possible returns from his labour or from the 

 capital invested. 



Now considering, for instance, the great difference in 

 the condition of the soil at Cunnersdorf and Oberbobritzsch, 

 it is self-evident that the same rotation of crops which suits 

 the one field, will not answer equally weU for the other. 



If farmers would only make up their minds to acquire 

 by experiments on a smaU scale,* an accurate knowledge 

 of the productive power of their land for certain kinds or 

 classes of plants, a few more experiments would readily 



* In a field of pretty uniform composition, experiments of this kind 

 may be made with flower pots sunk in the earth. 



