260 



On Agricultural Chemistry. 



means that which would be selected for seed. These conditions 

 are secured bj an artificial supply of certain elements favouring 

 the desired determinations of the plant ; and therefore artificial 

 manures may for such purpose be employed with advantage. 



If grain crops, as I have endeavoured to show, can be grown 

 at a cheaper rate by the production of meat, than by the direct 

 action of artificial manures, the propriety of adopting the former 

 course to its full extent becomes simply a question of capital. It 

 would require five times as much capital to produce the same 

 amount of corn by means of stock as could be produced by arti- 

 ficial manures. It is the same with the manufacturer who em- 

 ploys a high-pressure or a double- cylinder engine ; with the 

 former his capital invested is small, but the interest paid upon it, 

 by the daily consumption of fuel, is very great , while with the 

 latter his invested capital is large, and his daily interest compara- 

 tively small. The want of sufficient capital among so large a 

 portion of our agriculturists cannot be sufficiently deplored in a 

 national point of view. They imagine that the greater extent of 

 land they can farm with a limited capital, the greater will be the 

 interest obtained for it ; by which means the amount of labour 

 employed is reduced to the smallest possible extent. High prices 

 have hitherto allowed a system of agriculture to be pursued, by 

 which little more than the natural produce is obtained from the 

 soil. But if the average price of corn should ever be reduced to 

 the standard of other countries, a reduction of rent must take 

 place equivalent to this diminution, or the decrease in the value 

 of corn must be balanced by an increased average produced in 

 the soil. 



J. B. Lawes. 



Rothamsted. 



