2 2 The Landed Interest. 



able, without injury to the land, whenever soil 

 and circumstances render such a practice neces- 

 sary. The old plan of relying on the resources 

 of the farm by depending on the manure made 

 upon it, while the corn and meat were sold 

 away, will not answer now. Commerce and 

 mercantile enterprise have provided other means 

 for maintaining fertility at a cheaper cost, and 

 in a more commodious and portable form. One 

 cwt. of nitrate of soda will give a more certain 

 return of corn than fifty times its weight in 

 farmyard-manure, and can be carried to and 

 spread upon the ground at one-fiftieth of the 

 Great labour. The proof of this, in Mr. Lawes' ex- 



BriitTsh° periments, has been before the country for more 



agriculture ^, ^i • , j . •. • i i_ • • 



of Mr. than thirty years, and yet it is only beginning 



periments. to be generally recognised. 



To Mr. J. B. Lawes the agriculture of this 

 country is more indebted than to any other 

 living man. For thirty-three years he has con- 

 ducted, at his own cost, a series of experiments 

 on his estate in Hertfordshire, the results of 

 which have been annually published, and the 

 farm itself, with every detail of the work, has 



