196 Financial Results. 



the stock department of the farm would be to introduce an 

 element of the greatest uncertainty, as it is an element which 

 fluctuates aU over these islands. Each farmer must observe 

 what can be produced from the soil by my system of farming, 

 and apply to the conditions of his own holding my principles and 

 system, with whatever modifications may be suitable to his 

 climate and present circumstances. All that the farmer requires 

 to do is to visit one of our young grass fields, in which he will 

 always find a large crop of clover and kidney vetch, which is the 

 indispensable base of the system. The steward carries a crop 

 book of each field for the last 20 years, so that the visitor can 

 see exactly what the field has been doing, and how it has been 

 treated. The steward also carries a seed book, showing cost of 

 seeds and the mixtures used, and the visitor can learn from the 

 shepherd what stock the field has kept. This year (1904), for 

 instance, the Inner Kaimrig - 25 acres — has kept as much sheep 

 stock or rather more than the grass fields aggregating 87 acres 

 of the adjacent farm, which is much better land, by the way, but 

 which is farmed on the old five -course system, and on which 

 the generally used ryegrass and clover mixtures have been sown, 

 and I have no doubt this is a difference that would pretty 

 generally be found to prevail in Scotland. A reference to 

 Eothamstead experimental field, devoted to the rotation of crops, 

 will show him how all the subsequent crops are benefited by the 

 manurial matter left behind from a large crop of the Leguminosae, 

 and for evidence of this he can see the turnips, four years' old grass 

 of fine quality, cereals, and potatoes, all grown without manure 

 other than of the turf grown on the land, and only aided by the 

 manure left by the sheep and the dung of lean cattle, which last 

 is generally applied to the nearest fields to the steading, all the 

 more distant fields having to depend solely on the turf grown on 

 them. The quantity of cake used is so small that the,, farmer 

 quoted in the Preface considered it to be practically none. What 

 the farmer could keep in the way of stock with the aid of such 

 crops grown as cheaply as mine have been, and what he covdd 

 make out of the cereals and potatoes, he must calculate for 

 himself, with reference to his own surroundings, and no publica- 

 tion of all my profits could aid him, though it is just possible 

 it might mislead him, seeing that, obviously, my results might 



