Experiences up to the end of October, 1904. 165 



experience, and ma^isiges the farm, is at variance with me as regards 

 the mixture I am using this year, and thinks that the mixtures 

 previously used could not be surpassed. These differences show that 

 we have yet a great deal to learn as regards this important subject. 

 I trust that those who may adopt my system will carefully record 

 their experiences, and, if they will be good enough to send them to 

 me, they will be useful additions to our present information. 



The Work of the Board of Agriculture : — 



1. In grants for agricultural education and research the Board 

 spends from £7000 to £8000 a year. 



2. Nearly all the suggestions and experiments given in their 

 reports tend to involve the farmer in some expenditure beyond what 

 he at present incurs. 



3. But, as a rule, farmers have no money to spare for any extra 

 expenditure, and the few who have are afraid to risk it, as the outlay 

 might be lost owing to defects of season or a fall in prices. 



4. It must, then, be clearly proved to the farmer that any sugges- 

 tion made to him must yield distinct advantages, combined with a 

 reduction in the present cost of production ; a diminution of risks 

 as regards crops, stock, and from adverse seasons. 



5. What is the essential basis of the highest agriculture? It is that 

 the soil should contain a considerable proportion of vegetable matter 

 in various stages of decay. It is this which gives the great value to 

 virgin forest soils and to newly-enclosed pasture lands. 



6. But if, and when, this vegetable matter declines to a low level, 

 which it, of course, soon does unless supplied in some way, then all 

 the difficulties of agriculture begin. The plant is involved in them 

 because its roots cannot, as a rule, readily penetrate soil which is not 

 kept open by humus ; the agriculturist, because he has to spend more 

 money in cultivation and manure, and even then obtains results far 

 inferior to those which can be obtained from a soil well supplied with 

 humus, if the land is aided by a slight degree of cultivation and a 

 very small expenditure in manure. Then when the land is deficient 

 in humus, as nearly all our cultivated lands are, the risks from 

 defective seasons increase, there is less food for stock, and plants are 

 more liable to disease and to suffer from the attacks of insects. 



7. With the great evil of defective soil conditions which underlies 

 our agricultural difficulties the chemist cannot grapple, nor can all 

 the education and experiments on which the Board spends from 

 £7000 to £8000 a year. 



8. On the Clifton-on-Bowmont farm I have grappled with our 

 agricultural difficulties as to system (though improvements are yet to 

 be made before it can be brought to perfection), but, so fa/r as the 

 public is concerned, I have only grappled with them on paper. 



9. From the numerous mistakes liable to be made in working the 

 system, and in matters which, though to the uninitiated apparently 

 trifling, largely influence results, I feel sure that much disappointment 

 and loss must ensue unless those desirous of adopting my system 



