

ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 53 



case we shall find an unfavourable combination. And in 

 some cases, when farmyard manure is applied and ploughed 

 in, it is ploughed down literally upon the rock. If farmyard 

 manure is ploughed down on the rock it probably quickly 

 decays, as air rapidly gains access to it, and the nitrates 

 and other valuable constituents are lost through drainage 

 through the fissures of the rock. This has led the farmers, 

 where such conditions of soil exist, to avoid ploughing in 

 farmyard manure. I have known excellent farmers sow 

 their wheat and wait till it appears above ground, and 

 after it is up cart on the dung at a suitable time, and 

 spread it over the young wheat, thereby protecting it to some 

 extent from the rigours of the weather ; and the decay of the 

 dung takes place on the surface, and the fertilizing elements 

 filter gradually down to the roots of the plant. This system 

 is adopted in order to avoid the dung being wasted through 

 the fissured rock. 



In the seventh place, a chalk sub-soil ought to be men- 

 tioned, as the chalk formation covers a vast area of ground 

 in this country. The upper chalk forms a very excellent 

 sub-soil. Chalk is a source of plant food, and it allows a 

 free passage of the roots and of water down into it. Great 

 benefit accrues from the digging up of chalk and spreading 

 it on the surface. I am sorry to notice that it is done 

 much less frequently now than it appears to have been 

 done in our grandfathers' time. In chalk districts there 

 are evident traces that chalk has been largely used. We 

 can scarcely ride over fifty acres of land without seeing 

 old chalk pits forming depressions in the surface. Farmers 

 seem to have become discouraged by the low prices, and 

 I think that this has been partly the case. They are in 

 no mood for trying expensive and laborious improvements. 

 Change in practice in this particular may likewise be due to 

 the cheapness of special substances, such as superphosphates. 





