64 THE FUTURE OF OUR AGRICULTURE. 



the wet seasons bring rest to the teams, that same rain 

 which now so often is the tiller's foe, becomes his beneficent 

 friend. For field work is timed so as to fall into the time 

 when rain is a help. This green cropping likewise, with 

 its perpetual covering, keeps the land clean, and by its 

 vegetation evaporates much moisture in the season when 

 moisture in the soil is a nuisance, while keeping the land 

 shaded in summer. And it enables the farmer greatly 

 to reduce his purchases of both artificial fertilisers and, 

 even more, of nitrogenous feeding stuffs. On a farm occu- 

 pied by Lady Coghill and Miss S. Oer Somerville, in Ireland, 

 under " Continuous Cropping " the yield of milk was found to 

 have become trebled in comparison with what it had been 

 under grass. Elsewhere similar results have been observed ; 

 and the output of beef and mutton has likewise been found 

 to have doubled or trebled. On a farm in the North of 

 Ireland occupied jointly by Lady Francis Hope and Mr. 

 Wibberley, where four years ago the farm staff could cul- 

 tivate only thirty-five acres, besides looking after sheep, 

 cows and other live stock, now, the head of dairy cattle 

 having been doubled, the same staff suffices for the culti- 

 vation of no acres. On one of Mr. Wibberley 's own farms 

 of 360 acres, under " Continuous Cropping," in 1916, ;£5,200 

 worth of beef and mutton were sold, the expenditure on 

 feeding stuffs amounting to only £80. The nitrogenous 

 " fleshformers " previously given in that form had been 

 provided without cost in the crops of leguminous plants 

 raised. Since we import annually 20-30,000,000 tons of 

 cake and meal, representing a collective value of about 

 £160,000,000 in ordinary times, the latter point is worthy 

 of consideration. " Continuous Cropping " ought to become 

 a feature in our farming. There is a good deal more money 

 in it for the farmer than in Protection. 



What we want, in fact, in view of possible future wars, 

 is not an actual maximum cultivation of wheat, but a 

 capacity for growing a maximum quantity when the pinch does 

 come. Now to that desirable point the way lies, not across 

 permanent maximum wheat cropping. Quite the reverse. 

 It lies across very careful preparation of all the soil that we 



