206 AGEICULTURE. 



may be increased by manuring. 2nd. That with respect 

 to all land which is not pestered with furrows, water-grips, 

 ditches, and such abominations, and which consequently, 

 either by nature or by artificial aid, absorbs all the rain 

 which falls upon it, something approaching to a definite 

 ratio has been established by experience between ingesta 

 and egesta between the quantity of manure applied and 

 the increase of produce. If water runs off the surface of 

 land, it is impossible to say how much this ratio may be 

 disturbed. The manure applied may go to fertilize an 

 alluvial meadow indefinitely distant, or to assist in forming 

 a rich mudbank in the ocean.* 



We will illustrate these data by the simplest case which is 

 within our own experience, and will state the results. When 

 on a portion of a field of meadow-land, which, in its natural 

 state, would yield one ton and a half of hay per acre, 

 we sow four cwt. of Peruvian guano, we find that the 

 produce is in the first year increased to two tons per acre, 

 and that in the second year an effect of a few cwt. per 

 acre, certainly under five, remains. The outlay in guano, 

 including cost, carriage, pounding, sifting, and sowing, is 

 quite 45s. per acre. The result is, that we have bought 

 hay at 3. per ton, having some increase of aftermath to 

 set against the harvesting of fifteen cwt. of hay. This 

 suits us, because we are habitual buyers of hay ; and this 

 mode of purchase is ready, saves marketing and other 

 interruptions. But were we haysellers, we are convinced 

 that we should be losers, because in ordinary seasons the 

 transaction would be about evenhanded, and once and again 

 in a series of years comes a dry May and June, in which 

 guano has little or no effect. This, then, is not good 

 farming, because there is no profit. It is not very bad 



* Few persons, except those who have both observed and thought 

 accurately, are aware how much furrows impede the beneficial effects of 

 draining. They entice the water to the place which has been last and 

 most trodden by the horses, and last and most glazed by the plough, 

 and where it has consequently most difficulty of ingress. 



