148 ON THE COMPOSITION AND USE 



be added to the soil for the purpose of giving- it fertility pro- 

 ceeded, was, to compose such a mixture as would g-ive back 

 or add to the soil in sufficient quantity the constituents of 

 the crop which it was intended to raise, and it depended on 

 a knowledge of the number of those substances, and the 

 proportion in which they existed in dilferent plants, that this 

 could be etiected. These returns to the soil of mixed manure 

 should contain the several substances carried off by the 

 crop. The straw carried off a great deal more of the 

 mineral matter from the soil than the grain ; but, at the 

 same time, the substances that grain carried off were the 

 same as were carried off by the straw. So much in regard 

 to the nature of artificial manures, and the principle upou 

 which they were manufactured, and upon which their virtue 

 depended. Now, the next point was their recom.mendation 

 to use them. Many excellent old farmers told them there 

 was nothing like farm-yard dung, and many young farmers, 

 and those who had learned most, would say the same thing. 

 Now, all present knew that if they had plenty of well-pre- 

 pared farm-yard dung, not exhausted of the liquid, -w hicli, in 

 too many cases, was allowed to run to waste, and as he had 

 seen yesterday on a large farm in the neighbourhood, they 

 need not be afraid of growing excellent crops from that 

 alone. But if they were to look to the best husbandry in. 

 the island, and to ask how it was that those men were most 

 prosperous, every one acquainted with the matter Avould 

 give them the same answer as he would give. Those men 

 farmed the highest and added the most manure to their 

 land. They had not been satisfied with returning to their 

 land what they had taken out of it, but they had uniformly 

 got manures from a distance, for the purpose of supplying* 

 that additional quantity above what the}^ could produce 

 themselves, for bringing their land into its highest state of 

 activity. He laid it down as a general rule, that, in order 

 to have their land in tlie highest state of fertility, they must 

 add to it more manure than they could make upon their 

 farms. The agriculture of Great Britain, although the most 

 advanced in ^le world, was nevertheless capable of being 

 ])romoted to a degree which it was very difficult to form any 

 conception of. This was to be effected after adopting* 

 tlioi'ough-draining, subsoil-ploughing, and other mechanical 

 means for improving the soil, by more skilful manuring than, 

 had been hitherto practised, which was essential to good 

 farming. He recommended this hi^-h mode of farming-, not 



