JANL ART, 1900.] 



79 



Correspondent. 



of us in their recognition of the impor- 

 tance ot the physical condition of the soil, 

 and as a result they have taught us many 

 lessons, and can teach us many more, 

 bearing on this aspect of farming. 

 There may be some truth in tbe conten- 

 tion that the more settled climate of 

 America simplifies adherence to a fixed 

 s-ystem of management in that the 

 farmers can tell pretty accurately before- 

 hand the kind of weather to expect, and 

 thus can make their plans as to plough- 

 ing, cultivating, and harrowing with a 

 degree of certainty and precision im- 

 possible in this country. The influences 

 of a well-regulated climate, however, are 

 not exclusively oa the side of the farmer, 

 lie can count just as certainly upon 

 protracted periods of drought and 

 scarcity as he can upon seasons favour- 

 able to the growth of the plants and the 

 cultivation of the land, farming under 

 such conditions demands at least as 

 much resource as in a land where the 

 rainfall, the frosts, and the sunshine 

 occur in less well-appointed sequence. 

 Manuring is of little avail in counteract- 

 ing adverse climatic influences, and the 

 only hope of mitigating the stunting 

 effects of the rainless periods lies in the 

 thorough pulverization of the land. 



AMERICAN EXPERIENCES. 



The Americans long ago discovered 

 that the defects of their climate could 

 be minimized by good cultivation, and 

 pursuing investigations in this direction 

 they have succeeded in largely over- 

 coming many of the obstacles which at 

 one juncture seemed so momentous. It 

 is not alone in counteracting the effects 

 of drought that the American farmers 

 have proved the importance of thorough 

 cultivation ; but it may almost be said 

 that they have succeeded in making til- 

 lage do for them what we expect from 

 manures. Land regularly under cultiva- 

 tion requires to have its stores of plant 

 food replenished from artificial sources 

 at intervals, but the lesson inculcated 

 by the American experiments is that the 

 amount of plant food in a good medium 

 soil is almost inexhaustible and only 

 requires to be liberated uy tillage in 

 order to be made available for the 

 plants. 



The British farmer relies in increasing 

 degree upon manures to make his land 

 productive, and our system of experi- 

 mentation encourages the belief that 

 manuring is the first point in good 

 farming. A moment's consideration of 

 the question, however, will show this to 

 be a wrong interpretation of the correct 

 order of things. Not the manuring of 

 the land, but its cultivation, is the 

 foundation influence. The beuefits deriv- 

 able, not necessarily from deep tillage, 

 but from the reduction of the rooting 

 afea to a fine tilth, are many and im- 

 portant. In the first place, the germina- 

 tion of the seed and the development 

 and spreading of the roots are accelerated 

 in inverse proportion to the resistance 

 they meet with in the soil, and if no 

 other advantage were conferred, this in 

 itself would be sufficient to justify the 

 contention that the cultivation of the 

 soil is the pre-eminent factor in arable 

 farming. But the influences of a well- 

 prepared tilth extend much further. 

 The nutritive ingredients latent in the 

 soil are set tree to be acted upon by the 

 natural fertilizing agencies in the form 

 of bacteria or even chemical processes, 

 and rendered available as plant food, 

 and thus the fertility of the land as well 

 as its physical condition is improved. 

 Moreover, whatever farmyard and arti- 

 ficial manures are applied are more 

 readily assimilated by the well-prepared 

 than by the indifferently-tilled soil, and 

 the net results are increased production 

 and a saving in expensive manures. As 

 indicating that the advantages of good 

 cultivation are appreciated by at least 

 some of our farmers, one who has had 

 varied experience in the management of 

 heavy soils recently gave it as his opinion 

 that efficient tillage was the key to 

 successful arable farming. He uses both 

 farmyard manure and artificials in 

 liberal quantities— of the former in fact 

 as much as he can— but he has found 

 that expenditure in manures is a doubt- 

 ful investment unless the physical con- 

 dition of the land is carefully looked 

 after. His experience is consistent with 

 sound reasoning, and it would be well 

 for farmers in general if they more 

 adequately recognized the truth of these 

 remarks, —London Times, Nov., 2, 1908. 



