312 ARTIFICIAL MANURE. 



rear, or fatten cattle ? ! ! the expense of cartage upon the 

 manure alone being infinitely greater than for the specifics 

 proposed by the above-named foreigner. 



The time has arrived when the scientific agriculturist must 

 distinguish between the shadow and the substance; and no 

 longer be guided by theory in opposition to experience. Every 

 obstacle to good husbandry ought to be removed ; monopoly 

 and mystery abolished ; and the wide field of knowledge opened 

 to all without money and without price. The strong should 

 help the weak, the wise instruct the ignorant, in order that far- 

 mers may be enabled to stir up the latent resources of the soil, 

 and obtain a per centage upon the money employed through 

 increased production. 



In the best cultivated districts there are no regular plans for 

 ensuring, throughout the year, an independent and adequate 

 supply of cattle-food and manure ; a defect which the system 

 embodied in this work is designed to remedy. 



The extraordinary facilities afforded for the purchase of 

 artificial manures are only encouragements to sloth and extra- 

 vagance. One tailor does not employ another to make his 

 clothes; neither should our fields be dressed through the 

 medium of manure companies. 



The annual cost for agricultural nostrums is infinitely 

 beneath the loss by fallows, and by the waste upon farms. 

 Were the former sowed with linseed, and the latter obviated, 

 the necessity for purchasing manure would be avoided, and the 

 soil permanently improved. Let the reader calculate, if pos- 

 sible, the difference between a hundred acres of land lying idle, 

 subjected to rent, rates, and tillage, and a hundred acres sown 

 with flax. For my own part, I am unequal to the task, so 

 innumerable are the ramifications of advantage in favour of the 

 latter. 



During the Rebecca-riots, I often expressed, to my corre- 

 spondents in Wales, an opinion that the box-feeding system 

 would abolish more toll-bars than the carters of lime ; because 

 farmers would obtain a sufficient supply of manure without 

 recourse to the kiln ; and thus render unnecessary the payment 

 of toll. 



