368 HIGH FARMING, 1837-1874 



fertilisers, portable, cheap and abundant, were placed at the com- 

 mand of the farmer. Without manure the attempt to grow roots 

 or clover failed ; their introduction only protracted the shift, and 

 aggravated the difficulty of inevitable exhaustion. Now, however, 

 the principle was gradually established that he who put most into 

 his land got most out. Farmers recognised by experience, when the 

 means were at their disposal, that, on the one hand, if they ruined 

 their land their land ruined them, and that, on the other hand, 

 only those who have lathered can shave. It was in readiness to 

 invest capital in the land that one of the chief differences between 

 the earlier race of agriculturists and the modern type of farmer 

 became most conspicuous. The main objects of the former were to 

 feed their families and avoid every possible outlay of cash. Hard- 

 living and hard-working, they rarely thought of spending sixpence 

 on manure, still less on cattle food to make it. They gave little to 

 the land and received little. The consequent loss in the national 

 means of subsistence can scarcely be exaggerated. Modern farmers, 

 on the other hand, not only purchased thousands of tons of artificial 

 fertilisers. They also bought for their live-stock vast quantities of 

 feeding-stuff, which supplemented their own produce. Roots, clover, 

 beans, barley-meal, hay, chaff, as well as artificial purchased food, 

 were supplied to the sheep and cattle, which once had only survived 

 the winter as bags of skin and bone. Just as guano from Peru 

 was turned into English corn, or bones from the Pampas into English 

 roots, so the Syrian locust-pod, the Egyptian bean, the Indian corn, 

 or the Russian linseed were converted into English meat. The 

 gain to the nation was immense, and to the farmer it was not small. 

 The return on his money was quickened. He sold his stock to the 

 butcher twice within the same time which was formerly needed to 

 prepare them once, and that less perfectly. At the same time his 

 command of manure was trebled in quantity and quality, and on 

 clay lands his long-straw muck was of special value. 



The changes which have been noticed in modern farming necessi- 

 tated more frequent operations of tillage, which, without mechanical 

 inventions would have been too costly to be possible. Here, again, 

 science came to the aid of the farmer, and supplied the means of 

 making his labour cheaper, quicker, and more certain. The Royal 

 Agricultural Society may legitimately pride itself on the useful part 

 which it has played in introducing to the notice of agriculturists 

 the new appliances which mechanical skill has placed at their service. 



