234 CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS 



because the rise in the amount of wages that must be paid by 

 the farmer necessitates a larger bank balance, and therefore 

 a larger capital. Added to the rise in the cost of labour, 

 is the rise in the cost of materials, and a capital which was 

 sufficient to enable a man to work a farm before the war is 

 now quite insufficient for the task. It is very largely this 

 difficulty of insufficient capital that prevents progress. 

 It has been the habit of the fertilizer manufacturers in the 

 past to do their share towards meeting this difficulty by 

 providing very long credit for the payment of manure bills ; 

 but, with the rise in the interest payable on loans, the manure 

 manufacturer may be compelled to raise his terms for this 

 service. It seems probable that this custom will be extended 

 in the future, unless some other means can be devised for 

 providing the farmer with capital to carry on his holding, 

 which has now become, in comparison with his capital, too 

 large for him to manage. The increase in the cost of labour 

 will compel the farmer more than ever to put into practice 

 a lesson he has already fairly well learnt. Farmers have 

 learnt to aim at a whole crop, knowing by experience that 

 fractions of crops do not pay ; the higher the cost of culti- 

 vation becomes, the more necessary it is for the farmer to 

 obtain full crops from his land. The weather is out of his 

 control, but by supplying sufficient amounts of fertilizers, 

 he can diminish the effect of adverse conditions. 



To enable full utilization to be made of the fertilizers, 

 the farmer should have a more complete education in the 

 science of his life-work. There are plenty of farmers with 

 well-developed powers of observation who never pass another 

 farm without learning something by looking at it ; but, 

 on the other hand, there are, unfortunately, many occupiers of 

 land who look over their neighbour's hedge only to find fault, 

 who take no trouble to learn from the practice of others, 

 who never visit an experimental farm, and whose daily work 

 exhibits much dull routine and little enterprise or thought. 

 There is no more striking lesson than to travel in any part of 

 the country and observe how one well-managed farm is 

 bounded by many indifferently managed holdings. Sometimes 



