100 THE SOIL OF THE FARM. 



of the owner rather than those of the cnltivator of the 

 soil. A few years ago, when public attention was directed 

 to the vast increase in the amount of agricultural pro- 

 duce sent from the States to England, there w^ere many 

 who put forward the view that, by a more liberal appli- 

 cation of capital to the soil, we could grow all the wheat 

 required to feed our population. Under these circum- 

 stances I thought it my duty to caution tenant farmers 

 against paying too much attention to statements which 

 were uttered by those who had no experience in either 

 practical or scientific agriculture. I accordingly delivered 

 a lecture before a farmer's club, in which I endeavored to 

 show, by the teaching of my own experiments, that a 

 higher system of farming was not so certain a remedy for 

 falling prices as some wished them to believe. 



In a letter recently published in a paper devoted to 

 field sports, which I have been informed is much read *by 

 the owners of land, a writer who signs himself * 'Agri- 

 cola," makes the following observations: ''Certain pam- 

 phlets of Mr. Lawes have done intolerable mischief in 

 giving a false coloring to the service higher farming might 

 render in enabling British fanners to tide over the pres- 

 ent crisis," and he goes on to say that we have the coun- 

 terblasts of M. Georges Ville to send all unsubstantial 

 utterances beyond the domain of rational consideration ! 



If in speaking of the immense influence which such nitro- 

 genous manures as ammonia, or nitric acid, produce upon 

 the growth of our ordinary cereal crops, I had pointed out 

 that, owing to. the high price of these substances, it was 

 by no means certain the increase in produce would pay 

 for their application ; and consequently it Avould be de- 

 sirable for the United States farmer to exercise some 

 caution in their use. I think it is hardly possible to be- 

 lieve, that any one in the States could suppose such a 

 caution would be productive of evil. 



In another case I was rather amused at a correspon- 



