378 Chronicles of Science. [July, 



The conclusion is obvious, that, provided the fattening animal 

 can assimilate the food, a given amount of increase will be obtained 

 with a smaller expenditure of constituents by respiration, the shorter 

 the time taken to produce it. In fact, by early maturity, and the 

 rapid fattening of stock, a vast saving of food is effected. 



Mr. Lawes has lately made a practical use of the conclusions to 

 which his Kothamsted researches have led him in connection with 

 another branch of farm practice. In a paper read before the London 

 Farmers' Club on the exhaustion of the soil in relation to landlords' 

 covenants and the valuation of unexhausted improvements in favour 

 of an outgoing tenant, he drew a distinction between the natural 

 fertility of a soil, which is the property of the landowner, and the 

 " condition " of the soil, which is often properly the property of a 

 tenant. The following are the practical results which he considers 

 follow upon his discussion of this subject : — 



" Condition " is a quality distinct from natural fertility of soil, 

 and is mainly dependent on the amount of capital expended by 

 the tenant in the purchase of cattle food or manures. It is, 

 therefore, his property, and may be easily and rapidly reduced. 

 ■ — The natural fertility of a soil, on the other hand, whether high 

 or low in degree, is, comparatively speaking, a permanent quality ; 

 it can only be injuriously affected by the continuance of an ex- 

 haustive system of cropping for a long period of time ; it is the 

 property of the landlord ; and, excepting in the case of very light 

 soils, it is the chief element in determining the rent- value of the 

 land. — No injury is likely to result to the landlord in the case of the 

 heavier soils from granting the tenant permission to crop as he 

 pleases, provided he be bound to keep the land free from weeds, and 

 to leave a fixed proportion under fallow and green crops at the 

 termination of his occupation. — By the valuation of so much of the 

 farmyard manure, and of so much of the manure constituents derived 

 from purchased cattle food, as have not yet yielded a crop, and also of 

 the straw of the last harvest, fair compensation may be made to the 

 outgoing tenant. — If abundant capital is to be attracted to the soil, 

 it is essential that liberal covenants in regard to cropping should 

 be adopted, and fair compensation for unexhausted improvements 

 made. 



Among the remaining principal events which have lately hap- 

 pened in the agricultural world must be named the remarkable favour 

 with which the so-called ABC process for dealing with the town 

 sewage nuisance has been received by many towns on which the 

 adoption of it has been urged. Chemical analysis does not endorse 

 the extravagant assertions which have been made regarding the 

 merits of the process. The water is still foul after sewage has been 

 acted on by the ABC mixture ; and the dried mud which it throws 

 down, for which 70s. a ton is the price demanded, is not worth, even 



