iv] MODERN WASTE 63 



British East Indies, Canada and other parts of the 

 Empire. Thus a prodigious transfer of soil fertility 

 is taking place from these countries to our own. The 

 process at present is enormously wasteful. We have 

 seen that terrible losses of fertility may arise under 

 conditions of pioneer farming ; even the remnant 

 saved in the crop suffers further loss in many a badly 

 arranged British farmyard and exposed manure heap. 



Lastly, the crops raised on the British farm are 

 largely sent off to the cities from whence only little 

 manure ever returns, the great proportion of the 

 fertilising constituents getting into the sewage and 

 being destroyed at considerable expense. 



It is obvious that such wasteful methods cannot 

 go on indefinitely. Investigations into the losses and 

 gains are now going on at Rothamsted and elsewhere. 

 With fuller knowledge there is little doubt that some 

 of the waste can be reduced, while the action of the 

 recuperative agencies in the soil can be accelerated. 

 It is impossible to overestimate the imi>ortance of 

 evolving a permanent system of maintaining soil 

 fertility, but such a system must rest on a solid 

 foundation of scientific fact 



