

ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 153 



that period of the year when they are wanted. It is worth 

 notice that the same forces which liberate nitrogen must also 

 liberate the mineral and other constituents of farmyard dung, 

 gradually and as required. I remember being taught as 

 a student, that all substances are in the most active state 

 when they are in a nascent condition, or newly liberated from 

 combination. I am not sure if this doctrine is still taught ; 

 but if such is the case, it is one reason why farmyard manure 

 exercises such a superior and long-continued effect on grow- 

 ing vegetation compared with the effect of artificial manures. 



The durability of farmyard manure may be looked upon as 

 one of the reasons why it retains such a great popularity. 

 That property is well known. It, of all substances, gives 

 what we may term cumulative fertility to the farm. Most 

 fertilizers are one-crop manures, or one-year manures their 

 effects disappear after the first year, and they have very little 

 residuary effect surprisingly little; but the residuary effect in 

 farmyard dung is one of its greatest points ; it seems to tell at 

 least for twenty years. I remember at Rothamsted seeing 

 umnanured plots of wheat, part of which had been manured 

 twenty years ago with dung, still showing a superiority over the 

 continuously unmanured plots which had not been manured 

 twenty years ago. This quality is sure to give farmyard dung 

 a high standard of value for the farmer, especially as farmers 

 often occupy their farms for long periods of time, and some- 

 times from generation to generation. 



There is another consideration with reference to farmyard 

 dung, which ought not to be omitted, although it is a commer- 

 cial reason, and scarcely belongs to its function as a fertilizer. 



Farmyard manure ought to be produced at a very low 

 sum, in spite of what M. Ville says ; in fact, it ought to be 

 produced for nothing. It has been the stereotyped opinion 

 amongst farmers all my lifetime that beef and mutton pay 

 through the dung which they produce. The Norfolk farmers 



