106 THE BOOK OF THE LANDED ESTATE. 



beans or peas, turnips, potatoes, or mangolds, or all of these, or grass 

 chiefly, as the local climate may best indicate, one essential requisite 

 to success in the growing of any of them is a plentiful supply of good 

 and suitable manure. If, under the shallow system of cultivating the 

 land at present generally pursued, there is found on most farms a scarc- 

 ity of this, how is a system of cultivation to be carried successfully 

 out which would require nearly double the quantity of manure now 

 used to fertilise the land to the depth of two feet ? My answer is, that 

 were the system of trenching and manuring the land to the depth of two 

 feet to be adopted as I recommend, it would of itself provide a quan- 

 tity of manure proportionate to the demands it would involve. This is 

 evident from the following considerations : The bulk of crops of all 

 kinds would be increased orr the average to the extent of fully a half 

 more than they are now, and the number of beasts which could be 

 kept would be increased in proportion; and therefore the natural manure 

 of the farm would also be proportionally great. Besides this source of 

 increase in regard to manure, there would be others by no means of 

 small importance in the economy of the farm namely, a proportionate 

 increase in the available sewerage from the dung- yards, &c., and also 

 in the quantity and quality of the manure which would arise from 

 the increased number of animals fed on the farm. Therefore, keeping 

 out of view altogether the artificial manures which every intelligent 

 farmer is understood to purchase, and which, when properly selected to 

 suit the land and crops, always pay well for their cost, it is clear that 

 the extra quantity of manures which would require to be used for car- 

 rying out the system of deep cultivation recommended would be obtained, 

 in a great measure, from the increased resources of the farm alone. 



No doubt, at the starting-point, a slight deficiency would be experi- 

 enced ; but after the first green-crop portion of the land of a farm had 

 been dealt with in the way recommended, and the crop secured, the extra 

 manure derived from its consumption would be sufficient to give an 

 extra manuring to the next portion, and so on with the other portions, 

 till all the farm had been dealt with in a similar way ; after which 

 period there would be such a quantity of vegetable produce grown and 

 consumed on the farm, that instead of the manure being found deficient 

 on it for the demands necessary to carry out the system, it would be 

 found very much more adequate to supply this than the manure of the 

 farm is now found to supply the wants of the mode of cultivation at 

 present in general practice. 



From what has been said in this and the preceding sections, it may 

 be inferred that the proprietor of an estate should be at the expense of 

 all the improvements suggested. I do not mean this, however, and 



