34: THE GREAT WAR 



as his chief means for fertilizing the land. 

 Those who have visited farms abroad, will have 

 seen the care with which the cultivating owner 

 collects the liquid manure into tanks and, often 

 diluting it with water, spreads it over his ground 

 to enrich the crops. 



The Board of Agriculture issue periodically 

 most valuable and instructive leaflets on farm- 

 ing, but it is a question if the average farmer 

 reads any of them. 



The average farmer, moreover, keeps few or 

 no accounts and therefore does not realize his 

 financial position. He expects too large a 

 return for the capital invested in his farm. A 

 man who farms 200 acres, assuming that he 

 has the requisite capital of 2000 (which he 

 rarely has) and reckoning the handsome rate 

 of interest on the 2000 at 12 J per cent, has 

 just 250 a year or about 5 a week on which 

 to live. Against this, he should charge himself 

 with house rent, with the value of the produce 

 consumed on the farm, with insurances, living, 

 clothing, education of his children and other 

 expenses connected with housekeeping. After 

 providing for all these expenses, there is evidently 

 no margin to enable him to don the " black 



