EBBOBS IN MANVBlJSra. 23 



Cbapter 4 — Cbouabts about iKatiuring, 



The reduction of manuring to an exact science proceeds apace, but a 

 good deal of water will run under the Forth Bridge before the average 

 cultivator has made up his mind that it is worth while to look twice 

 at a manure heap. 



There is no class more difficult to influence than that which has 

 secured a certain result by a certain course of procedure. " Leave 

 well alone" is its motto. It is not a bad one, I admit, but I should 

 not agree to leave well alone when, by giving it up, better could be 

 done. The cry is on all-fours with such old and crusted ones as 

 ^'Slow and sure" (as if swift and sure were not far better) ; "A bird 

 in the hand's worth two in the bush" (is not a bird in each hand 

 superior to either and so forth. 



Admitting that the man who takes refuge behind a series of old 

 saws is difficult to dislodge, it by no means follows that it is not 

 worth w^hile to make the attempt. If we cannot catch him, we can 

 at all events build blockhouses of hard, well-proven fact around him, 

 so that his movements may be hampered, and he may work less 

 direct mischief. 



Of the two errors, it is easier to give too much manure than too 

 little, consequently there is an appalling waste of good material 

 going on in our gardens year by year. Moreover, as it is easier to 

 give manure at the wrong time than the right, it follow^s as a natural 

 sequence that most of our manuring is done at the wrong time. 



The majority of people get into a w^ay of thinking that the truth 

 about manuring lies in the comparative merits of artificials versus 

 dung. That is the point which would rise to the minds of most if 

 they were asked to state the most important ground of debate. It 

 is a consideration, to be sure, but since a harmonious and economical 

 manuring system must inevitably bring into use both classes of 

 fertiliser, it follows that the problem of finding it cannot be solved 

 by setting up one against the other, and seeing which can be the 

 more quickly demolished by hard pummelling, 



I have said that it is not only common to use too much manure, 

 but to apply it at the wrong time. To take the case of Peas, as an 

 example, the average cultivator would, if he used only one class of 

 manure (and that dung), use three or four times as much of it as is 

 wanted. On the other hand, if he used both dung and artificials, he 

 would put the former on in spring, and the latter in late spring 

 or early summer, whereas the former should be used in autumn and 

 the latter in late winter. 



