A CLOVER-SICK FIELD. , 157 



enrich his field in the proper spots with the elements 

 of food which peas require. 



In all problems of this kind, the secret of success is, 

 not to suppose that the solution is easy, but that it is 

 attended with great difficulties ; for, if these did not 

 exist, experimental art would long ago have found the 

 solution. 



The many unsuccessful experiments of Messrs. Lawes 

 and Gilbert to make a clover-sick field again productive 

 for clover, have a certain value, in as far as they show 

 that mere experimenting leads to nothing. If I here 

 bestow upon these experiments an attention which they 

 do not deserve, my object is, not to submit them to a 

 passing criticism, but to warn the practical man how he 

 ought not to proceed in trying to solve his problems, 

 if he wishes that his efforts should meet with success. 

 The conclusions which Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert have 

 drawn from their numerous experiments are as fol- 

 lows : they found that when land is not yet clover- 

 sick, the crop may frequently be increased by manuring 

 with salts of potash and superphosphate of lime ; that 

 when, on the contrary, the land is clover-sick, none of 

 the ordinary manures, whether ' artificial ' or ' natural,' 

 can be relied upon to secure a crop ; and that the only 

 way is to wait some years before repeating red clover on 

 the same land. 



It is hardly necessary to remark, that what Messrs. 

 Lawes and Gilbert are here pleased to call conclusions, 

 are no conclusions at all ; what they have discovered 

 has been experienced by thousands of agriculturists be- 

 fore them ; and the only conclusion which they were 

 permitted to draw should have been this that in their 

 attempts, by certain manures, to make a clover-sick 

 field again productive for clover, they failed. In truth, 

 they have not striven, in the remotest degree, to pro- 

 cure information about the causes of clover-sickness in a 

 field, but they have simply tried different manures, in 

 the hope of finding out one that might serve to restore 

 the original productive power of the field, and such a 

 manure they have not found. 



