A EATIOXAL AtiKICULTURIST. 333 



labour, can obtain from a licld continuously witliout ex- 

 haustion the highest crops it is capable of yielding, 

 requires a large compass of knowledge, observation, and 

 experience, more perhaps than in any other business. 

 For the rational agriculturist must not merely know all 

 the facts -with which the iUiterate peasant is acquainted, 

 but he must also be able to appreciate tliem at their 

 proper value ; he must know the reason of all his proceed- 

 higs, and what effect they may have upon his land. He 

 must be able to interpret what his field tells him in tlie 

 phenomena which he observes in practice ; in a word, he 

 must be a thorough man, and not a half-and-half creature 

 who knows no more about his actions than a tom-cat, 

 with just skill enough to catch gold fish in a basin of 

 water.* 



* If we compare the theoretical views expressed in the works of 

 confessedly good practical farmers with the system of husbandry which 

 they have found by their own experience to be the best, Ave observe 

 the most irreconcilable contradictions between the two. 



TValz ('Communications from Hohenheim,' No. 3, 1857) disputes 

 both these propositions, viz. : — 



' That the removal of the mineral constituents in the crops, unthout 

 compensation^ produces sooner or later lasting unfruitfulness as a con- 

 sequence.' 



' That if a soil is to maintain its fertility continuouslt/, the removed 

 mineral constituents must, sooner or later, be returned to it, i.e. the 

 compo.sition of the soil must be restored.' 



And gives as his opinion that both these propositions are at present 

 applicable only to soils of the wor.st kind, which needed a supply of 

 mineral matters from the very beginning. 



Now, if we turn to the ' Application of his theory to practice ' (page 

 117), we would natiu-ally suppose that he would never trouble himself 

 about any compensation ; but it soon appears that he is far from believing 

 in the truth of his oAvn doctrines. He lays the proper stress upon the 

 restoration of potash, lime, magnesia, phosphoric acid, gypsum, guano, 

 bone-earth, marl, and farm-yard manure; and lays down the following 

 rule : — ' That the farmer, to keep his groimd in uniformly increasing 

 fertility, must not remove more in his crops than the jtroducts of the 



