AGRICULTURE OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 27 



Naturally the soil of England is not superior, if it is 

 equal to ours ; the cause of its superior productive- 

 ness, then, is clearly to be traced to an improved 

 state of agriculture. If we can ascertain, therefore, 

 in what these improvements consist, we shall prob- 

 ably gain some hints which may be of essential ser- 

 vice to us. 



To the increased quantities of manure prepared, 

 and the skill shown in its application; to the rota- 

 tion of crops, and the general substitution of wheat 

 for the coarser grains ; to the introduction of root- 

 culture, and the use of lime and bone-dust, may most 

 of the great productiveness of English lands be 

 ascribed. It is true, some five or six millions of 

 acres, once lying waste and in commons, have been 

 enclosed, and add their product to the sum total ; 

 still the very fact that these wastes have been ren- 

 dered fertile, proves the superior skill of the present 

 race of British agriculturists over those of former 

 days. 



There can be no doubt that the quantity of manure 

 made and used on farms in Great Britain is more 

 than double the amount made fifty years since, and 

 probably exceeds in about the same ratio the usual 

 application in this country. In every form, long or 

 rotted, in compost or with lime, all that can be used 

 as manure, is so applied ; and, with the exception of 

 Holland, in no country has the science of manuring 

 made such rapid progress as in England. Lime is 

 used in quantities that would astonish an American 

 farmer, and its good effects are perceptible for a 

 great length of time. But the manure which is most 

 relied upon for the production of root-crops, and 

 which, of course, acts a most important part in the 

 English course, is bone-dust, or bones reduced to a 

 powder by breaking and grinding. In this matter 

 of manures, which constitutes the very foundation 

 of all good farming, we are yet in our infancy. If 

 we can manage to get out our straw" on our lands. 



