186 LAND TENURE 



tion applicable to the country generally " a scale based 011 

 the cost of the various foods consumed and on the majority 

 of the scales of allowances then in use. With regard to com- 

 pensation for artificial manures the Committee thought " that 

 a wide divergence in details resulting from differences of soil 

 and other conditions is inevitable ; we are therefore unable to 

 report that any one scale is of general application." 



In the meantime Mr. (afterwards Sir) John Bennet Lawes. 

 and Mr. (afterwards Sir) J. Henry Gilbert, of Rothamsted, 

 had been for many years pursuing scientific investigations 

 into this question. Mr. Lawes had an article in the Journal 

 of the Royal Agricultural Society in 1847. In 1885 they 

 published another article in the same Journal, in which appear 

 the following paragraphs : 



" We published a table about twenty-five years ago showing 

 the average compsition per cent, and per ton of the chief feeding- 

 stuffs and other agricultural products, and called attention to- 

 the fact that there must be a great difference in the value of the 

 manure according to the composition of the food consumed. 

 Soon after a table was published showing the estimated money 

 value of the manure from the consumption of the ton of the 

 various foods. The table of composition was founded partly 

 on the results of analyses made at Rothamsted, but in great 

 part on the results of others which had at that time been pub- 

 lished ; and having calculated the amounts of nitrogen, phos- 

 phoric acid, and potash contained in one ton of the respective 

 foods, we deducted the quantities of phosphoric acid and potash 

 which we estimated would be contained in the increase in live 

 weight of the animal consuming it." 



This article contained exhaustive tables showing the 

 average composition per cent, and per ton of cattle foods > 

 and the data, the method, and the results of the estimation 

 of the original manure values after consumption. They 

 published further articles in the same Journal in 1897 and 

 1898, but for the moment we are concerned with the earlier 

 period. 



Lawes and Gilbert were undoubtedly right in their theory, 

 for the governing words of the Act of 1883 were : " A tenant 



. . . shall ... be entitled to obtain . . . as 

 compensation . . . such sum as fairly represents the 

 value of the improvement to an incoming tenant." And the 



