THE JOURNAL 



OF THE 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 



Vol. XVII. No. 12. 



MARCH, 1911. 



THE VALUE OF DIFFERENT CROPS AS GREEN 



MANURES. 



A. D. Hall, M.A., F.R.S., 



Director of the Rothamsted Experimental Station. 



Green manuring is a practice comparatively little followed 

 in Great Britain, because wherever fodder crops are at all 

 generally grown the land is suitable for sheep, and the 

 standard custom of the country has always been to feed off 

 the green crop with sheep. Wherever one sees vetches or 

 mustard or rape being turned in by the plough on these light 

 soils, it is generally because the farmer has an excess of keep 

 and fears he will not be able to feed off the fodder crop in 

 time to get the land ready for the next stage in his rotation. 



On heavy soils, however, where sheep cannot be folded, 

 green manuring might well be more practised, especially as 

 its value in improving the texture of the soil will be even 

 more felt than upon the sands and chalk. Indeed, it is not 

 unlikely that we shall see more green manuring in the future 

 if corn prices continue to rise. Feeding stock is not always 

 the most profitable operation upon the farm, so that many 

 men would be glad to grow corn crops more frequently and 

 reduce the acreage under roots, with their doubtful return 

 for the very considerable expense involved, were it not that 

 they feel they must make as much farmyard manure as 

 possible in order to maintain the condition of the soil. It 

 is in supplying the humus and in ameliorating the texture 

 of the soil that farmyard manure becomes so indispensable, 



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