100 AGRICULTURE 



artificial manures can be altogether dis- 

 pensed with, though one also finds an almost 

 self-sufficing condition of things, as regards 

 manure, on some of the large Down farms 

 of the south of England. 



In approaching the subject of manuring, 

 one may be disposed to ask why manurial 

 substances are applied at all. Various 

 answers may be applied to such a question ; 

 one that is frequently given being that 

 manures are applied in order that crops may 

 be grown, the practice of manuring being 

 now so common that many assume the im- 

 possibility of obtaining any crop at all 

 without the use of manure. This answer, 

 however, is not satisfactory, inasmuch as 

 plenty of instances are to be found where 

 crops of a sort are annually produced without 

 the return to the land of any natural or 

 artificial fertilizing material. One has an 

 example of this in certain meadow land, 

 which from time immemorial has neither 

 been irrigated nor manured, and yet from 

 which annually a fair crop of hay is taken. 

 In such a case the plants are supplied with 

 nourishment from the materials that are 

 annually rendered available in the soil 

 through the action of weathering agents, and 

 if the conditions of weathering are specially 



