24 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



we have since discovered to have been an error, and partially 

 discarded — namely, the preference given to pasturage over 

 tilling, on the supposition that it was cheaper to let 

 little produce " walk off the land to market on its own 

 legs " than to " cart " very much more substantial produce 

 off in wagons. And the other assumption was, that the 

 interest to be paid on barns, in the place of spending much 

 money annually on the building up of stacks, must be 

 regarded as most uneconomical. But the pith of the matter 

 was Townshend's and Coke's system of " rotation," which 

 got rid of the everlasting " rye, spring corn, fallow " of 

 the three-field shift and ushered in what has become to 

 Germany a golden era of the cultivation of roots and legu- 

 minous plants — more specifically roots, which have proved 

 a treasure to the country. ^ There were first-rate agricul- 

 tural chemists in Germany then. Germans have always 

 had a marked liking for chemistry. Stockhardt stood at 

 the head. And he spared no pains and no labour to pro- 

 claim — in the place of Liebig, who had little contact with 

 the agricultural world — that savant's "mineral theory," 

 heartily adopted by himself, and also his own " nitrogen 

 theory." Assiduous preaching of specifically chemical 

 truths to the farming world greatly stimulated the national 

 fancy for chemistry. Stockhardt had in his " Chemischer 

 Ackersmann " and his " Chemische Feldpredigten " with 

 great skill put chemical truths into a light, attractive, 

 easily comprehensible shape. And German agriculturists 

 pounced with delight upon such teaching. Agricultural 

 chemistry came to be everywhere pushed. The peculiar 

 organisation of the German rural community made what 

 the more favoured had learnt readily accessible in a popular 

 way also to the more horny-handed practitioners. And, 

 as observed, it was mainly chemistry which won the battle. 

 Improved practical processes, the use of modern implements 

 and machinery followed after. In the 'sixties my English 



1 Roots, that is, sugar beet and potatoes (for distillery purposes), 

 had been grown and utilised, at a great profit, before, but in a com- 

 paratively small number of cases. The benefit to the country came 

 with the extension of their cultivation, which naturally reduced 

 individual profits, but benefited the fields of the entire country. 



