THE SOUTHERN PLANTER 



277 



Owing to the hilly character of the dis- 

 trict there is great difficulty in carting • 

 farmyard manures, even if it could be i 

 produced in adequate quantities; and I : 

 need not tell you that, where you have to i 

 put ten or fifteen loads per acre, the ex- i 

 pense of cartage must be much greater 

 than it would be if you could obtain the ; 

 same result with one load of another ma- 

 nure. What I have now said indicates, in 

 some degree, the position in which you . 

 are now placed. I am certain that in the 

 next five years the agriculture of Corn- 

 wall will receive an impetus such as it has 

 never experienced hitherto ; .because the 

 Cornish farmers will now be enabled to 

 grow abundant crops, with the aid of arti- 

 ficial manure, in places where manures 

 hitherto have, in consequence of their 

 bulk, been practically unattainable. But 

 let me tell you, gentlemen, that you have 

 to guard against adulteration. I have my- 

 self spent a great portion of my time in 

 exposing the various adulterations of ma- 

 nures. 1 have, too, recently met with an 

 instance in which parties, calling them- 

 selves a company, have presented them- 

 selves before the world as being associated 

 for the special purpose of protecting the 

 interests of that unfortunate being who is 

 supposed not to be capable of protecting 

 himself— the British farmer (laughter) ; 

 and these gentlemen declared that by them, 

 at least, no adulteration should be sanc- 

 tioned. Gentlemen, a guano which* was 

 offered by these parties to the British far- 

 mer at about £10 per ton — the price of 

 genuine Peruvian guano being, you will 

 observe, £1% pep ton — was ascertained by 

 me on analysis to be worth only about 

 £2 10s. per ton; while a quantity of su- 

 perphosphate of lime, which was offered 

 at £1 per ton, was also ascertained to be 

 worth only about £2 14s. per ton. These 

 analyses were made within the last few 

 weeks. Of course, these adulterated ar- 

 ticles were sold to some one, and it is as 

 likely, perhaps, that they will be offered 

 in the West of England as in any other 

 part of this country. (Laughter). All I 

 can do is to recommend you to take proper 

 precautions against imposition. Imitate 

 the conduct of honest manure dealers who 

 never allow anything to come into their 

 manure works without knowing what it is. 

 Never allow, if you can help it, a single 

 artificial manure to come upon your farm 



without having ascertained previously of 

 what it consists. The cost of an analysis 

 is very small compared with the loss which 

 you would sustain by using a spurious ma- 

 nure to assist you in the growth of your 

 crops. If we could only induce the far- 

 mers to join us in this work of detection 

 and to have their artificial manures ana- 

 lyzed, the whole tribe of dishonest ma- 

 nure dealers would vanish from the face 

 of the earth as quickly as so many mush- 

 rooms. 



The Chairman said he concurred in al- 

 most everything the lecturer had said. 

 He saw considerable doubt depicted in the 

 countenances of some gentlemen present 

 while Mr. Nesbit was explaining the sys- 

 tem of cutting clover twice and relying 

 on the decay of the clover roots for ma- 

 nure for a wheat crop ; but he had himself 

 said, in the presence of four or five per- 

 sons whom he met this morning, and with- 

 out knowing any opinion of Mr. Nesbit, 

 nearly word for word what they had just 

 heard on that subject. He had found that 

 in other parts of the country clover was 

 the crop that preceded wheat ; and any 

 one who would take the trouble to exam- 

 ine carefully when he ploughed up clover, 

 would perceive that the abundance and 

 size of the roots were likely, when in pro- 

 cess of decay, to afford to the wheat crop 

 a large quantity of valuable manure. The 

 only question was, whether the moisture 

 of their climate might not prevent the 

 roots of clover from producing the same 

 effect that they produced in other parts of 

 the country. (Hear, hear.) Of that he 



could form no opinion. 



# # # # # # 



Mr. R. Wise was desirous of putting to 

 Mr. Nesbit a question having reference to 

 his remarks on the subject of clover. In 

 that neighborhood it was the practice to 

 eat dow T n clover ; and there was, he be- 

 lieved, a clause in all the leases prohib- 

 iting the cutting of clover twice in suc- 

 cession. He would be glad to hear from 

 Mr. Nesbit whether or not his remarks 

 were applicable to the la}^ing down clover 

 for two years, 

 i Mr Nesbit said, he knew that was a 

 question which admitted of a great deal of 

 argument. He was aware of the practice 

 ! of laying down clover for two years. 

 1 1 But they lived in two enlightened times 



