The Best Cultivating Agents. 21 



is practically acquainted with the great importance of 

 soil disintegration through the agency of roots, that if 

 he trenches land a foot deep, and takes from it a crop of 

 parsnips, he finds, on taking up the crop, that the land 

 immediately below the part dug is in finer physical 

 condition than the cultivated land above. And this, of 

 course, arises from the fact of the parsnip roots pene- 

 trating, and minutely sub-dividing, the soil, which, from 

 its depth, has the advantage of being largely removed 

 from the action of the weather. And, to give another 

 illustration, we find the same thing in India when the 

 forest is allowed to gradually extend itself into the 

 adjacent grass land, and when the roots of the trees 

 gradually permeate the land below the reach of the 

 roots of the grass plants, and so turn the whole soil to 

 a considerable depth into a beautifully cultivated subject. 

 Or, to take yet another illustration, it may be mentioned 

 that agi'iculturists in France, to improve certain arable 

 lands, sow on them a mixture of gorse and grass (to be 

 cut for hay) with the view of improving the depth and 

 texture of the soil, which, after the lapse of a certain 

 number of years, is again brought under the plough. 

 Of all cultivating agencies, then, roots stand by far at 

 the head, and it is by applying this principle to our 

 arable lands that we shall at once manure, aerate, and 

 cultivate them in the cheapest manner. All agricultur- 

 ists recognise this in a general way ; but, as regards the 

 cultivation of our lands with the agency of deep-rooting 

 forage plants, it can hardly be said to have been, 

 practically speaking, recognised at all in this country. 

 And I may go as far as to say that, till it is so, our 

 agriculture will never be placed in the position of safety 

 it ought to occupy. I was long ago certain of this, but 

 I never thought that I should be able to prove it to such 

 an extent as I am now able to do ; and, as the subject is 

 of great importance, I propose to enter, with some 

 degree of detail, into the particulars of the first experi- 

 ments made by me as regards laying down poor and 



