CHAPTER IX 



CAUSES OF FERTILITY AND STERILITY OF SOILS 



Meaning of Fertility and Condition — Causes of Sterility : Drought, 

 Waterlogging, Presence of Injurious Salts — Alkali Soils and 

 Irrigation Water— Effect of Fertilisers upon the Texture of 

 the Soil — The Amelioration of Soils by Liming, Marling, 

 Claying, Paring, and Burning — The Reclamation of Peat 

 Bogs. 



In discussing the question of fertility, a difficulty at the 

 outset crops up in the definition of the term " fertility " : 

 we are dealing with something intangible and dependent 

 upon so many varying factors that it becomes a matter 

 of judgment and experience rather than of scientific 

 measurement We have to distinguish between the 

 fertility proper, "the inherent capabilities of the soil," 

 to use the language of the old Agricultural Holdings 

 Act, which is the property of the landlord, and for 

 which the tenant pays rent; and the "condition" or 

 " cumulative fertility," the more temporary value which 

 is made or marred by the tenant. Though in the main 

 it is easy to feel the distinction, it is often difficult, if 

 not impossible, to draw a line of demarcation between 

 them. Clearly the farmer in a new country on virgin 

 soil is dependent wholly on the inherent fertility of 

 the land, but with much of the land in this country it 

 is hard to say how far its value is inherent, or due to 

 long-continued cultivation. When a tenant by many 



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