SECTION IIL-IMPROVEMENTS IN THE 

 USE OF FERTILIZERS 



THE weary struggle during the long period of agricultural 

 depression in the British Isles caused much land to pass into 

 the hands of the pessimist, who endeavoured to farm in a 

 method by which he could not lose, and by which the State 

 stood to gain but little. The attempt to solve the problem 

 by offering Parliamentary guarantees, gives rise to the serious 

 danger that the drone who occupies good old corn land may 

 easily make more out of it than the energetic man makes out 

 of the acres of new land he breaks up, in his efforts to lay 

 the foundation of future prolific food supply. The farmer 

 needs for his operations not only land, but well -tilled and well- 

 drained land, which can be treated with chemical fertilizers 

 in a scientific manner. How much of this effort to improve 

 soil fertility should be borne by the landowner needs to be 

 carefully considered ; the tenant farmer can hardly be 

 expected to sink much capital on those fertilizers which will 

 produce their best results after the lapse of many years. 

 It is to the landowner's interest that the land should be put 

 into good heart ; that this can be done, even with the 

 poorest land, has been shown time after time. At Cockle 

 Park, in Northumberland, land which had a very low rental 

 has, by comparatively simple means, been converted into at 

 least an average pasture, and the value of the land has been 

 markedly increased by the process. Much of the difficulty, 

 in persuading the farmer to use a sufficient quantity of 

 fertilizers, has been due to the lack of sufficient capital by 

 the farmer, or, what is putting the same matter into other 

 words, large numbers of farmers take farms which are too 

 large for the amount of capital at their disposal. This 

 difficulty is likely to become even more acute in the future, 



