338 TALKS ON MANURES. 



These results, if they are to be accepted as correct, must 

 bring about a very considerable change in the generally re- 

 ceived views in regard to fertility. We not only see more clearly 

 the connection between a former vegetation and the stored up 

 fertility in our soil, but we also see the importance of vegeta- 

 tion at the present day, as the only moans by whicli the loss of 

 nitric acid is prevented. The more completely the laud is cov- 

 ered with vegetation, and tlie mor^^^ growth there is, the greater 

 will be the evaporation of water, and the less will be the loss of 

 nitric acid by drainage. 



I was not at all suri)rised to find, that the surface soil of a 

 wood on my farm, was poorer in nitrogen than the soil of an 

 old permanent pasture, to which no manure had been applied 

 for twenty-five yeare, though during tlie whole period, the crop 

 of hay had been rejioved every year from tlie laud. The wood 

 to which I refer is covered with oak, centuries old, and the 

 foliage is so dens.' that but little underwood or other vegetation 

 can grow l)eneath it. If both the wo(xl and the pasture were 

 put into arable cultivation. I have no doubt that the pasture 

 would i)n)ve much more fertile than the wood land. 



In our experiments on [)ermanent pasture, it has been ob- 

 served that the character of the lierbage is mainly dependent on 

 the food supplied. Weeds, and inferior grasses, can hold their 

 own as long as poverty exists, but with a Uberal supply of ma- 

 nure, the superior grasses overgrow and drive out the bad 

 grasses and weeds. In consequence of the low price of wheat 

 a good deal of land in England has baen laid down to perma- 

 nent pasture, and much money has been spent in cleaning the 

 land preparatory to sowing tlie grass-seeds. ,1 have on more 

 occasions than one. suggested that the money employed in this 

 process would be better expended in manure, by which the 

 weeds would be " improved "' off the face of the land. Wlii^e 

 walking over the abandoned portion of these estates I explained 

 my views upon this point to the manager. They were, how- 

 ever, received with the usual skepticism, and the rejoinder that 

 "there was only one way of getting rid of the weeds, which 

 was by the plow and fire." 



There is nothing that speaks to me S(j forcibly as color in 

 vegetation ; when travelling by rail, I do not require to be told 

 that such a farm is, or is not, in high condition, or that we are 

 passing through a fertile or infertile district. There is a i)eiu- 

 liar gretn color in vegetation which is an unmistakable sign 

 that it is living upon the fat of the land. I need hardly say 



