The Moral of this Narrative. 529 



The only source for the support of a community's poor, the 

 propagation of its religion, and the defence of its interests, is 

 its wealth, and when that is derived entirely from native soil, 

 there is reason in calling upon its Landed Interest to perform 

 the whole of these duties. But when the nation's wealth is de- 

 rived from the soils of all the countries in the world, it is surely 

 the grossest injustice to saddle its own individual landowners 

 and holders with a burden that should be evenly distributed 

 amongst the possessors of realty in every contributing country. 

 Such an argument does not necessarily imply a return to 

 Protection ; rather, it demands that land as regards tithe, poor 

 rate, and land tax should be placed on a level with personal 

 property. 



We have said that, so far as the husbandman himself can 

 effect it, his practice requires little amendment, but owing 

 partly to the shortcomings of the legislature, partly to those 

 of the agricultural chemist, he has annually to lay out a large 

 proportion of his spare cash in buying from abroad the 

 fertilising agents which are allowed to run to waste at home. 

 Until the sewage problem has been satisfactorily solved on 

 a scientific and remunerative basis, the community is partially 

 responsible for the present deadlock. Science has done much 

 for husbandry, but more is still required of it. "We want 

 chemical analysts distributed over the whole face of the land. 

 When an average farmer runs short of good farmyard muck, 

 he tells his neighbours at the market-ordinary that he is 

 going to buy " some of that there bag manure." He is there- 

 by, if he only knew it, subjecting his spare cash to the same 

 risks as if he were about to expend it under those proverbial 

 conditions of uncertainty which surround the purchase of " a 

 pig in a poke." He lacks as a mentor some chemical expert 

 who should be constantly at his elbow, to teach him dis- 

 crimination between expensive ammoniacal compounds and 

 cheap lime or phosphatic ingredients. His bag manure may 

 increase the yield of his crop, but not probably as economi- 

 cally as it would have done had he been advised as to the 

 proper proportions of the materials which it ought to have 

 contained. 



II. M M 



