tion awarded. If great care is not taken on this point we 

 shall soon find ourselves in the meshes of a system of paper 

 valuations representing no substantial value, which will in 

 time become a grievous burden to the agriculturist. 



Let me now illustrate what I have said by examples. 

 You will, I think, agree with me that the burning of a clay 

 soil, which is scheduled as an improvement in the Act of 

 Parliament, is an operation which is beneficial only in certain 

 cases, and may, in fact, when unwisely carried out, be pro- 

 ductive of much mischief. Liming, again, is another of the 

 scheduled improvements, which, if unwisely performed, may 

 injure instead of benefiting an incoming tenant. The 

 deterioration of fertility due to over-liming is, in fact, well- 

 known in those districts where lime is commonly employed. 



Many cases will arise in which applications of manures upon 

 a particular soil leave no result of any substantial value to 

 the succeeding tenant, while on another soil the use of the 

 same manures may constitute a fair claim to compensation. 

 Applications of potash salts furnish us with a good example 

 of this variable effect of manures. There is much land in 

 England on which potash salts are not a paying manure, and 

 not unfrequently their application to arable land produces no 

 appreciable effect. In other parts of England, however, the 

 beneficial effect of potash salts is very marked, and the 

 residue of the manure in the soil is undoubtedly of advantage 

 to the succeeding tenant. Here is a case in which a local 

 valuer, instead of following a hard and fast rule, should be 

 guided by the experience of the district, and award compensa- 

 tion, or withhold it, according to the amount of substantial 

 benefit which the incoming tenant will receive. It is futile to 

 argue that the residue of potash is in every case in the soil, 

 and, therefore, must be of future use ; if this future is 

 very distant, and the return in crops extremely slow and 

 uncertain, the benefit can hardly be supposed to have an 

 appreciable money value. 



In the example just given we have an instance of the 

 worthlessness of superfluous manure. The land on which 

 the potash produced no effect contained itself enough for the 

 wants of all the crops which it produced, and consequently 



