l.')4 E.vperiences up to the end of October, 1904. 



remark T have been told by Mr. Lillie, the tenant of the Burnfoot 

 farm, that he has no turnip disease on his highest and poorest field, 

 while he has a bad :ittack on a low-lying field, which is one of the 

 best on the farm. In the former case the land had never been limed, 

 but had an application of marl about seventy years ago. This 

 high-lying land had been left six years in grass before the present 

 crop of turnips had been taken, and there was a good turf. The 

 low-lying field was cultivated in the five-course shift. 



Why Land mi My System Increases in Fertility, even thowjh a 

 Breeding Slock is Kept, while practically no Cahe is Used, and 

 Hitherto only a Small Quantity of Artificials with Turnips. — This is 

 a point alluded to in the letter of a, tenant-farmer quoted in the 

 Preface, and has puzzled him, and many others, not a little, seeing 

 that, as he points out, even valuable old pastures quickly degenerate 

 when a breeding stock, or young animals, are kept without extra 

 cake feeding. The explanation is that the old pasture only produces 

 white clover, which is a comparatively small collector of nitrogen ; 

 while with my system, once every eight years, a large heavy crop of 

 red clover and kidney vetch is grown, which supply a large quantity 

 of nitrogen to the soil, while the deep-rooting plants bring into use 

 much mineral matter which is (juite out of the reach of the grasses. 

 With these manurial agencies, and the rich turf we can now grow 

 in four years' time, we can keep that breeding stock which old grass 

 cannot do without deterioration, because we supply the soil with a 

 large amount of humus. The effects of this are fully enlarged upon 

 by Warrington, Roberts, and other writers. The presence of humus 

 conserves manure (ammonia) in the soil that would otherwise be 

 washed out, and a soil destitute of humus will contain hardly any 

 nitrogen. The fertility of all virgin soils is largely owing to the 

 nitrogenous humus they contain. What plants most require are 

 things dependent on that physical condition of the soil which, with 

 the aid of humus is so fully supplied — air, moisture, and warmth. The 

 importance of humus in all light soils is immense, as it enables such 

 soil to retain manurial matters. Humus also brings into action the 

 inert mineral matter of the soil. Finally, with the aid of the deeply- 

 rooting plants I use, the humus is in every rotation more and more 

 deeply distributed in the soil, and the area of root range is con- 

 tinuously being so enlarged. These points, and others to which I 

 have elsewhere alluded, fully explain our ability to produce crops 

 which have surprised the farmer alluded to in the Preface, as well as 

 many of his friends. 



Advantages of Deep-rooted Plants. —The results which have been 

 attained from filling the land with deeply-rooted turf are as follows : — 

 The crops ripen earlier. The land is warmer. It dries much more 

 quickly. Carting on the land does little harm to it, or young grasses 

 and plants. Superfluous moisture passes downwards so rapidly that 

 all wash is avoided. The land can be much more easily and deeply 



