The Clover Mystery, 193 



easily be done elsewhere. But an improved farming system leading 

 to this end can only be generally attained within a reasonable period 

 of time if the farmer is aided by the following conditions. These are 

 (1) the diffusion of practical information on the subject by Government 

 Experimental Stations, (2) the provision of government seed testing 

 stations, (3) obliging seedsmen to pass an examination (just as 

 druggists are) before being allowed to practice their business, (4) the 

 guaranteeing by seedsmen of the rate of germination and purity of all 

 seeds, (5) that agricultural chemists should have had a practical 

 agricultural training before being allowed to practice, and (6) that the 

 present system of conducting manurial experiments should be placed 

 on a wider basis. To enlarge on all these points here would be 

 impossible, but numbers 2 and 6 are of such immediate importance, 

 and can be so readily taken up and acted upon, that a few sentences 

 may be devoted to their consideration. As to point 2, it may be 

 briefly stated that, with the exception of Great Britain, all the leading 

 countries of Europe have official seed-testing stations, where the 

 utmost facilities are given for the testing of agricultural seeds. Even 

 Ireland, thanks to the Hon. Sir Horace Plunkett, has such a station 

 in Dublin. Such stations were advised for Great Britain by the 

 Departmental Committee which sat on the subject in 1900, but the 

 bewildering variety of our national affairs no doubt leaves little time 

 for the Government to notice the needs of the biggest and most 

 important industry in the kingdom. The sixth point requires notice 

 at greater length. 



The usual practice is to conduct manurial experiments on ordinary 

 British soil ; in other words, soil that has been run out of humus, is 

 therefore in bad physical and manurial condition, and which has not 

 been cultivated nearly to the depth that it might and should be. 

 Plot No. 1 of such land is marked no manure, and to the other plots 

 are applied various manures, and conclusions drawn therefrom. Now 

 if we assume that the agriculturist can do nothing further by himself 

 to fertilize the soil, over and above what he does at present, no further 

 steps would be required, and in any case nothing is to be said against 

 this system, so far as it goes, but from not being accompanied by 

 similar manurial experiments on soil which has been tilled and 

 fertilized to the utmost (as the Clifton-on-Bowmont soil has been) 

 through the agency of natural means, the conclusions arrived at by 

 the experimenter must always be incomplete. It is evident then that 

 in every case where ordinary British soil is used for experimental 

 purposes, soil of similar character should be raised to the level of the 

 soil on the Clifton-on-Bowmont farm and then experimented on with 

 artificial and other manures similar to those used for our ordinary 

 run-out soils. A similar course should also be pursued where grass 

 lands are experimentally manured with the view of showing the 

 effects of various manures in providing more and better food for the 

 animals grazed on the pastures. In this way only could it be 

 determined how far artificial and other purchased manures pay the 

 farmer who chooses to use to the utmost, as I have, the resources 



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