SHORTCOMINGS OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 25 



implements were laughed at even by agriculturists of the 

 superior order, although the merits of my Enghsh breeds 

 of hve stock were done justice to. Since then the derided 

 implements have one and all become popular, common 

 and appreciated. High farming was pushed. So was 

 careful tillage. So was the study of seed. And fertilisers 

 were carefully selected for their relative value. The Germans 

 were the first to publish tables giving the analysis of feeding 

 stuffs and manures. On this point the Germans beat us. 

 They calculated closely. It was just in the 'sixties that 

 potash salts came in— in the first stage as mere cheap 

 refuse. Up to that time potash had been scarce, and little 

 thought of. I remember that a man was particularly 

 commended for collecting the water in which sheep had 

 been washed, in order to extract from it and utilise the 

 potash contained in the dirt of the wool. The opening of 

 the Stassfurt potash deposits brought about something of 

 a revolution. Roots and clover more particularly require 

 potash. But also on sand — barren sand, of which Germany 

 possesses a vast area — it was found that potash stiffens 

 the straw — presumably by dissolving some of the silica. 

 The more general adoption of sugar beet and potato growing 

 for industrial purposes became a turning point in agricul- 

 tural development. However, at all points heavy manuring 

 became a common practice. Judicious employment of 

 artificial fertilisers made even the erst barren sand of 

 " His Majesty's Sandbox " bear very respectable crops. 

 The Government encouraged all this. There was no one to 

 manure more heavily than did Dr. Friedenthal, the Prussian 

 Minister of Agriculture from 1875 to 1879, on his own 

 little property in Silesia. In this way our " high farming," 

 originally the model, came to be outstripped and intensified 

 in the shape of what we now know as " intensive farming." 

 At an opportune moment " organisation " came in. The 

 philanthropist F. W. Raiffeisen had been " organising " 

 since about 1850 in his distinctly philanthropic and quite 

 humble way for the poorest of the poor among the rural 

 population in Rhineland. Schulze Delitzsch had through 

 his co-operative credit associations raised substantially 



