228 ON LIBERAL MANURING AND 



AuTrci.E LIV.— ON LIBERAL MANURING AND DEEP 

 CULTIVATION. 



By Mr. Mechi. 



I DO not tliink, g'entlemen, that the farmers of this country- 

 apply sufficient capital to the land, that is to say, I think 

 they take too much land in proportion to their capital. The 

 consecpience is, the hest use is not made of that capital. I 

 do not helieve that any man can farm to the utmost extent 

 of profit in these days, without purchasing- artificial manures 

 — g'uano, for instance, for his distant fields, thus avoiding* 

 cartag-e ; and a larger quantity for his near fields with deep 

 cultivation, and hettor ag-ricidtural implements. Mr. Hutley, 

 a g-reat authority in our county, who farms 2000 acres in a 

 most profitahle manner, said at our Witham meeting, that 

 he considered g'uano paid itself in the straw alone besides 

 the crop, and that he has now 100 acres of wheat dressed 

 with 2 cwt. per acre of g-uano. {" He sells his straw.") No, 

 he does not. And I can tell you further, he never feeds ofi:" 

 a piece of clover, or a piece of fine rye-grass or tares, with- 

 out giving his sheep one pound of oil-cake per day. It ap- 

 pears to be a great expense. But what is the result? Enor- 

 mous crops both of roots and of wheat. And his system is 

 profitable, because every two or three years he hires an ad- 

 ditional farm. Gentlemen, the question of deep cultivation 

 is so important that I must not leave it. I know that the 

 majority of agriculturists consider that subsoiling is not a 

 profitable thing, or a proper thing. Now that is one of the 

 greatest mistakes that ever was made in agriculture. If 

 you find a farmer ploughing his ground 5 inches or G inches, 

 you will find him digging his garden to 15 inches or 20 

 inches depth. If you ask him why, he says, " I can grow 

 better crops in my garden by deep cultivation." How in- 

 consistent then ! If the one operation be right, the other is 

 wrong. Besides, if increased depth of cultivation be inju- 

 rious, you must carry out the principle and say that 2 inches 

 are better than 3 inches, and that 1 inch is better than 2 

 inches ; and thus you must go backward, and in course of 

 time there would be no cultivation at all. I say you must 

 carry out the principle of deep cultivation. What is there 

 magical in the favourite depth of C inches, except in the 



