116 "Can the Blind lead the Blind? 



tively in arresting the downward course of our British 

 soils. And is it not obvious that if, when the blind lead 

 the blind, the result is liable to be unsatisfactory, the 

 leading of the semi-blind by the semi-bliud is certain to 

 end in much more serious disaster? In the former case 

 both are proverbially liable to be abruptly aroused to 

 the inadvisability of their proceedings, and that, too, 

 before they have gone very far ; but when a chemist 

 who is agriculturally semi-blind leads a farmer who is 

 chemically semi-blind, still more unsatisfactory results 

 are, as we shall see, certain to ensue, for they are sure 

 to be the means of doing much harm by the propaga- 

 tion of that most dangerous form of knowledge known 

 by the name of half-truths. In order to prove this it is 

 only necessary to look into the seventh annual Report 

 on Experiments with crops and stock at the Northumber- 

 land County Demonstration Farm, Cockle Park, Morpeth. 

 It is there evidently assumed that the British farmer has 

 done all he can for himself by fully employing the 

 natural resources within his reach, and that all that 

 remains is for the chemist to step in and assist the farmer 

 either to increase his crops or improve the condition of 

 his animals by the aid of commercial fertilizers. But 

 the chemist (though adding the name agricultural would 

 lead people to suppose that he is an agriculturist as well 

 as a chemist) really knows nothing of agriculture, and 

 indeed it is obvious that he does not, for otherwise he 

 would first of all inquire whether the farmer does make 

 a full use of all the natural resources at his disposal 

 before advising that various kinds of chemical manures 

 should be used. But the chemist makes no such inquiries. 

 He takes British soil in hand as he finds it exhausted 

 more or less by long courses of limings and artificial 

 manures, and tells the farmer that all he has to do is to 

 replace what he has taken out of the soil, and that if he 

 wants more produce from it he must at once apply an 

 increased supply of the chemical ingredients that have 

 been carried ofl" the land. By this process the chemist 



