RATIONAL SYSTEM OF FARMING. 213 



crop, although it had received the smallest quantity of 

 farm-yard manure. In the increased produce, corn was 

 to straw as 1 : 5, clearly showing that sparing applica- 

 tion of straw manure was the proper course to pursue 

 here. This fact readily explains also why the lield at 

 Oberbobritzsch, comparatively poorer in straw-constitu- 

 ents, required 85 cwt. of farm-yard manure more than 

 the Kotitz field, to enable it to maintain, in its in- 

 creased produce, the same proportion of corn and straw 

 (1 : 2) as in the crop from the unmanured plot. 



These considerations might, perhaps, lead the prac- 

 tical farmer to the conviction that he is, after all, not 

 much of a free agent in the cultivation of his fields, and 

 that the ' facts and circumstances ' which guide him in 

 his proceedings are simply laws of nature, of whose 

 existence he has scarcely any conception. In truth, it 

 may be said that the agriculturist is a free agent only 

 in his wrong-doings. If he acts in accordance with his 

 own interest, he must allow himself to be guided, even 

 though unconsciously, by the condition of his land ; and 

 the only matter for wonder is, how far the man of ' ex- 

 perience ' has succeeded in this way. 



A system of farming, to be called truly rational, 

 must be exactly suited to the nature and condition of 

 the soil ; for it is only when the rotation of crops or the 

 mode of manuring is conformable to the composition of 

 the soil, that the farmer has a sure prospect of realising 

 the highest possible returns from his labour or from the 

 capital invested. 



Now considering, for instance, the great difference 

 in the condition of the soil at Cunnersdorf and Ober- 

 bobritzsch, it is self-evident that the same rotation of 

 crops which suits the one field, will not answer equally 

 well for the other. 



If farmers would only make up their minds to ac- 

 quire by experiments on a small scale,* an accurate 

 knowledge of* the productive power of their land for 

 certain kinds or classes of plants, a few more experi- 



* In a field of pretty uniform composition, experiments of this kind 

 may be made with flower pots sunk in the earth. 



