104 'J'he Clover Mystery. 



which nature has placed at his disposal. My own experiments are too 

 limited to enable me to pronounce a confident opinion, but, at present 

 prices of farm produce, they lead to the conclusion that purchased 

 fertilizers, though giving an increase of crop, do not pay after the 

 land has been cultivated for a rotation on the system I have adopted. 

 But should the prices of farm produce rise, such manures would 

 certainly be required, and after a considerable lapse of time it is 

 probable that, even with my system, certain soil ingredients would 

 become so deficient as to give rise to a demand for purchased 

 fertilizers. Fully to determine those important points ought to be the 

 aim of all who are interested in the progress of British agriculture, for 

 cultivation on the old lines, leading to decreasing humus and 

 increasing manure bills, is no more a remedy for low prices than one- 

 sided free trade is for free imports, and it is only by arriving at the 

 utmost safety and economy of production, through the agency of 

 natural resources used to the utmost, that our agriculture can be 

 placed on a sound and enduring basis. When this has been 

 attained — when the land has been cheaply and deeply tilled and 

 aerated with roots, and thus interpenetrated with humus — the value 

 of the chemist and the manure merchant will be most strikingly 

 apparent, and will be as absolutely certain as, in consequence of the 

 low state of fertility of our soils, the value of both is at present 

 uncertain. If you apply artificial manures to a mineralized soil you 

 may lose much of your money if the season is either over-wet or over- 

 dry. If you apply them to soil amply supplied with humus the 

 results from the manure are certain, as a fully humus-fed soil is able 

 to set at defiance the vicissitudes of the season, and, besides, ripens 

 the crops earlier (last year my barley was got in in good condition, 

 while that of my neighbours was caught by the rain) ; and from giving 

 a good nidus for the plants, renders them less liable to disease. 



I think I have now established the fact that the future success of 

 our agriculture depends upon growing full crops of clover, and shown 

 how this can be done with absolute certainty, and I may mention in 

 conclusion that I have made a list (published in The Farmer's 

 Gazette, Dublin, November 28th, 1903), of no less than twenty-six 

 distinct consequential advantages which arise out of growing it with 

 the aid of the system of farming adopted on my experimental and 

 demonstration farm. This consists of putting down a mixture of 

 three large grasses, one small one, three clovers, kidney vetch, 

 chicory, burnet, and yarrow, which is left for four years, or more, if 

 desirable, and is followed by turnips, oats, turnips, and barley or oats 

 with grass seeds. With this system weeds are so completely 

 abolished that none have been removed from the farm for the last 

 twelve years, and visitors have said that they had never seen a cleaner 

 farm. The effect on the health of the stock has been most marked, 

 partly, I think, from the drainage caused by the deeprooters, and 

 partly from the tonic properties of the burnet and yarrow, and from 

 the variety of food supplied. At a very large sale this year my half- 

 bred ewe lambs topped the market, I obtained first prize for the tup 



