SOME OTHER REMEDIES 245 



The useless hedges, the ditches choked with 

 rubbish and weeds, the rudimentary draining, 

 the shocking waste of good manure and the 

 prevailing filth of many farm yards, the 

 inadequate and dilapidated buildings, the 

 encouragement of vermin and the breeding 

 of foxes all such defects show only too plainly 

 how amazingly slow under existing conditions 

 has been the progress of British agriculture. 



There are, of course, exceptions in the case 

 of such general criticisms. Scientific farming 

 makes headway here and there, though sorely 

 hampered by the insecurity of tenure for 

 the yearly tenancy is typical of English farm- 

 ing and almost peculiar to it in Europe and 

 the lack of capital and credit. 



The most astonishing results have been 

 achieved by the use of chemical manures. 

 Professor Long has received testimony from 

 Wiltshire, Hampshire and the Midland counties 

 as to the vast increase in value due to 

 the judicious application of these manures. 

 One farmer writes " On land, about 100 acres, 

 growing coarse herbage, which neither horses, 

 cattle nor sheep would eat, I have now a 

 beautiful plant of clover. Formerly worth 

 2/6 an acre, it is now worth 20/-." In the case 

 of a high chalk hill in Hampshire we learn 

 that " On one piece of ninety acres, almost 



