Fortunes for Farmers 



admonitions to the " pigheaded " farmer to 

 "wake up"; but that does not help him. He 

 wants practical advice. 



A large part of the money spent on manures 

 is misapplied, and a good proportion is utterly 

 wasted, and might as well be thrown in the street. 

 Either it is placed where not wanted, or put 

 instead of something more urgently required, 

 or too much is applied at one time; in short, 

 expert advice is badly needed. But there is no 

 one to advise. Too often the manure manufac- 

 turer pushes what is most profitable, the text 

 books are recondite, and personal experiment is 

 difficult. But the last is our only hope, for land 

 varies incredibly, sometimes there are three or 

 four kinds of soil in one field, and the position, 

 texture, and subsoil must be taken into account. 

 Further, these trials must last several years, 

 never less than three, whilst the usual period is 

 one and no more. But you can tell no more what 

 manure suits a crop or a field by one year's trial 

 than you can tell what medicine suits an animal 

 after one dose. If then, farmers would experi- 

 ment with various manures, they would be 

 gainers, and either obtain the same crops with 

 less money, or greater crops with the same 

 outlay. 



Perhaps the most glaring instance of bad 



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