126 THE POSSIBILITIES 



the authority of Barral's Dictionnaire cF Agri- 

 culture to affirm that it gives excellent results. 

 Under this system stable manure is used mainly 

 for producing loam.* 



As to the different degrees of fertility of the 

 soil always the stumbling-block of those who 

 write about agriculture the fact is that in 

 market-gardening the soil is always made, what- 

 ever it originally may have been. Conse- 

 quently we are told by Prof. Dybowski, in the 

 article " Maraichers " in Barral's Dictionnaire 

 cT Agriculture it is now a usual stipulation of 

 the renting contracts of the Paris maraichers 

 that the gardener may carry away his soil, 

 down to a certain depth, when he quits his 

 tenancy. He himself makes it, and when he 

 moves to another plot he carts his soil away, 

 together with his frames, his water-pipes, and 

 his other belongings.^ 



* I saw thermosiphons used by the market-gardeners at 

 Worthing. They said that they found them quite satisfactory. 

 As to the cost of heating the soil, let me mention the experi- 

 ments of H. Mehner, described in Qartenflora, fascicules 16 and 

 17 of the year 1906. He considers the cost quite small, in 

 comparison with the increased value of the crops. With 100 

 per Morgen, spent for the installation, and 10 every spring for 

 heating, the author estimates the increase in the value of crops 

 (earlier vegetables) at 100 every year. (Report to the German 

 Landwirthschafts Gesellschaft, 1906.) 



f "Portable soil " is not the latest departure in agriculture. 

 The last one is the watering of the soil with special liquids 

 containing special microbes. It is a fact that chemical manures, 

 without organic manure, seldom prove to be sufficient. On 



