ON 



LIQUID MANURE, 



THERE is scarcely any agricultural improvement so excellent 

 that it could be carried out with advantage in every locality, 

 nor any agricultural practice so intrinsically bad that it could 

 justly be condemned unconditionally. If it were not so, we 

 should find it difficult to explain reasonably how it is that certain 

 modes of culture which by most men are considered antiquated 

 or irrational should yet have a powerful hold on the minds of 

 some skilled and experienced farmers. 



It is true that agricultural improvements make their way but 

 slowly into ordinary farm -routine, but, on the other hand, it must 

 be confessed that any scheme, however visionary, meets in this 

 country with eager advocates, whose extravagant ideas induce 

 some people to introduce into practice suggestions which in other 

 countries are only known in theory. 



Experiments on a variety of agricultural subjects are nowhere 

 so extensively tried as in England. Many of these experiments, 

 though on the whole unsuccessful, are nevertheless of great ad- 

 vantage to the farming community, for they often bring to light 

 matters of real practical importance, or at any rate act as beacons 

 to warn others not to engage in unprofitable speculations. 



The great success which has attended the application of liquid 

 manure in Flanders is proverbial, where it produces most asto- 

 nishing effects upon soils that are almost completely barren. 

 Any one who has passed through Belgium, and examined the 

 nature of the soil, must have been struck with the wonderful 

 change which liquid manure has produced ; and perhaps he may 

 ask why such a profitable system of applying manure to the land 

 is not adopted more extensively in other countries. Men zealous 

 in devoting their best energies to the good of their countrymen 

 have never been wanting in England, and it is but natural that at 

 various times admirers of the Flemish system of agriculture should 

 have raised their voice in favour of liquid manure. Indeed, ex- 

 pensive experiments have been set on foot in this country with 



A 2 



