4 New Farming System Ensures Good Crops. 



attracted to farming than is now the case. This 

 remark has been suggested to me by the admirable 

 advice given to landholders by Dr. Keith (in his 

 " General View of the Agriculture of Aberdeenshire "), 

 who advises them in general " to be contented with 

 raising grass and green crops, and a small proportion 

 of corn, remembering that a tenant who rises early, and 

 is his own bailiff, or farm overseer, is beet qualified to 

 be a corn farmer." To suit the advice to these days, 

 and for the general use of all agriculturists, instead of 

 " a small proportion of corn," we should say the smallest 

 possible proportion of corn. 



It must further be considered in this connection that 

 the system of farming to be afterwards recommended 

 as the one most suited to the times, not only, as I have 

 said, carries with it less risk of loss, but ensures good 

 crops of all kinds, whether the seasons may be over-wet 

 or over-dry. For the system provides a deeply-tilled 

 and humus-fed soil, and when you have both you have 

 those physical conditions which make failures in crops 

 an impossibility, for, as has been pointed out by Mr Hall 

 in " The Soil " — " Mechanical texture is of fundamental 

 importance, and many soils owe their value to this 

 property alone, as is evidenced by the high rents 

 obtained in East Kent for soils which contain but little 

 plant food, but which are of uniformly fine texture 

 owing to the fine-grained sand or silt of which they are 

 composed." And if this is the case with such soils 

 how much more so must it be in the case of soils amply 

 suppUed with humus, deeply-tilled, aerated, and drained 

 by the agency of the deep-rooting plants which are 

 recommended in my grass mixtures. 



In continuing these introductory remarks, I may be 

 allowed to observe that, notwithstanding our present 

 unsatisfactory agricultural condition, I by no means 

 take those gloomy views of our prospects which are 

 entertained by a large number of my countrymen. 

 Such views, I admit, are perfectly justifiable if any 



