204 TILLEES OF THE GEOUND CHAP. 



to show farmers that when natural manure could 

 not be got, then mineral substances could, to at 

 least a large extent, be used in its place. He 

 showed this practically by an experiment at which 

 the farmers laughed a little, but which was never- 

 theless of great importance as an experiment. 



He bought a little piece of almost barren ground, 

 and by treating it with mineral manures, together 

 with some other substance, he succeeded in getting 

 from this barren land as good crops as his neigh- 

 bours got from their fertile fields. The experiment 

 was costly, for he put into his land, in the form of 

 mineral manure, more than he got out in crops, but 

 still it was very important to show that soil could 

 be made fertile by adding the chemical substances 

 which were naturally lacking in it. 



The fate of this plot is rather interesting. " In 

 the year 1849," says Liebig, "my former gardener, 

 Kappes, purchased the land from me ; and this 

 industrious man, who has not the means to buy 

 manure, farms with profit the little property, now 

 in good heart. He is able, with the help of a 

 small coffee and beer trade in the summer months, 

 to support himself and his family on it ; he keeps 

 two cows, raises annually several oxen, and has 

 gained what has enabled him to increase the farm 

 buildings, and all this without ammonia or humus 

 by means of mineral manure alone." 



