HIGH FARMING. 245 



other variable. Our impression, rather than our opinion, 

 is, that where a farmer is a good buyer and a good seller, 

 where he has such an arrangement of buildings and such an 

 apparatus as enable him to reduce the cost of preparation 

 of food and of attendance on his cattle to a minimum, he 

 will manufacture manure cheaper than he can buy it ; but 

 the contrary where one or more of these elements of success 

 are wanting. We think, however, that the manufacturer 

 plays on the whole the surer game ; 1 st, because he can be 

 certain of the quality of his article ; and, 2ndly, because 

 we do not think that it is established beyond doubt that 

 the light concentrated manure, on which he must mainly 

 rely if he is a purchaser, will for a series of years maintain 

 a farm at the same point of fertility as those which are 

 manufactured by the old-fashioned organs of digestion. 

 But the improvement of a farmer's position, either by pur- 

 chasing manure or by manufacturing it, depends wholly on 

 the balance between the cost of the manure and the value 

 of the increased produce. He may make his position 

 better, or he may make it worse. Fourpence per pound 

 for ammonia may raise him ; sixpence may depress him. 

 Mr. Pusey, relying on the Rothamsted experiments, says 

 that 18s. worth of guano will produce 40s. worth of wheat. 

 We never found it so, or saw it so, in actual farming. 

 We think it very unlikely that it should be so. It would 

 be better than California. It would be impossible to keep 

 it secret. Any blockhead could find it out. Any blockhead 

 could practise it. There is no science, no skill, hardly any 

 exertion. It is very little more than putting 18s. into a 

 banker's hand to receive 40s. in six months. There would 

 be a guano mania, and a guano king. Perhaps our own 

 experience is a little nearer the mark. In the summer of 

 ] 849 we thoroughly drained and fallowed well twenty acres 

 of poor land. In February, 1850, we sowed it with barley, 

 and sowed at the same time 4 cwt. of guano per acre. The 

 cost of the guano when sowed was 45s. per acre. We are 

 morally certain, judging from previous experience, that the 



