SOILS AND MANURES 353 



the best and most enduring methods of husbandry known in CHAP. 



" VIII 



any country. 



There is no need for South African farmers to become 

 pessimistic on the question of soil exhaustion, if they will 

 study the example of England in contrast with that of the 

 United States ; in the latter we find, according to Hopkins 

 (6), thousands of acres of land practically ruined from an agri- 

 cultural point of view, after but 200 years of farming ; while 

 on the other hand we learn from Mr. Runciman that " the 

 older Engla?td grows the richer become the average soils ; cases 

 of impoverishment are few and far between ". The English 

 tenant-farmer is compelled, under the terms of his lease, to 

 restore to the soil what he takes from it, and nothing ends 

 a tenancy more speedily than evidences of exhaustive 

 farming. 



If proper steps are taken to maintain the crop-producing 

 power of the soil, maize does not prove an exhaustive crop. 

 Hunt (1) makes the following points — that (1) the amount of 

 soil elements removed is small in proportion to the amount of 

 foodstuff produced ; (2) large quantities of organic matter are 

 produced which when fed to live-stock make large quantities 

 of organic manure to return to the soil ; (3) the intercultural 

 tillage required by the maize crop is beneficial to the soil. 



Hopkins (5, p. 200 j says that to return the maximum 

 amount of organic matter to the land requires that the manure 

 shall be applied to the soil before losses occur by fermentation 

 and decay. " In ordinary farm practice more or less loss of 

 organic matter is almost certain to occur unless the manure is 

 applied to the soil within a day or two after it is produced." 

 English farm practice is changing in accord with this view, 

 largely owing, no doubt, to the effect of the dairy regulations 

 which require that the manure shall be removed daily from the 

 immediate vicinity of the milking sheds ; dairy farmers now 

 find it convenient to cart it direct to the land, and the results 

 appear to be entirely satisfactory. 



The best means of maintaining the crop-producing power 

 of the soil on a maize farm, as at present demonstrated, 

 are : — 



(1) The use of stable manure and kraal manure wher- 

 ever available. The available amount can be increased by the 



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