OF ARTIFICIAL MANURES. 153 



brought into a state of greater productiveness, more 

 straw and fodder will also be produced; and by 

 their assistance the stock can be so increased, and. 

 the supply of natural manure so enlarged, that the 

 importation of artificial manures is no longer neces- 

 sary. 



Whoever is now contented with the harvest wl^ich 

 a half-exhausted or but partially manured field pro- 

 duces, surrenders of his own free will the full income 

 desirable from his land, and acts not much unlike a 

 man, who, to spare half his fuel, keeps his lime-kiln 

 but partially supplied with heat. The farmer, it is 

 true, requires a larger capital to carry on his business 

 than in the usual mode of farming, but when the 

 money which he invests in the land is soon and 

 surely returned to him with abundant interest, it is 

 then indeed most advantageously employed. And 

 this csipital is more safe in the land, than when 

 locked up in exchequer-bills or in the public funds, or 

 even than when placed in a pot and buried in the 

 earth, and yields a far higher interest. If more deci- 

 sive testimony still is needed to the very great advan- 

 tages which the intelligent farmer may derive from 

 subsidiary manures, I would direct attention to the 

 practical experience of thousands of farmers within 

 a period of little more than ten years in Saxony. 

 Saxon agriculture now annually consumes some 

 30,000 cwt. of guano, more than 100,000 cwt. of 

 bone-dust, and in still more recent times very consid- 

 erable quantities of oil-cake also; and the increased 



