Agriculture in England. 



9 



But, before the seed is sown, manure must previously have been 

 applied, either immediately or in some former sta^ye of cultivation ; 

 and here questions large and numerous open themselves to the 

 inquiries, and demand the experiments of a body which aims at 

 raising the art of husbandry to the rank of a science possessing 

 definite laws. Whether farm-yard dung should be applied, re- 

 cently made or in a more advanced stage of fermentation ; whether 

 it should be laid on the field in the autumn, and covered over for 

 the winter by ploughing alternate furrows only — a process techni- 

 cally known as raftering, from the ribbed appearance which it 

 gives to the field ; or should be laid on in the spring, immediately 

 before the turnip is sown ; whether its efiicacy be increased by 

 mixing it in heaps with earth, technically known as compost-heaps ; 

 whether the manure of a farm should be applied entirely to the 

 green crops ; or whether, as is a common course, recommended 

 by the hope of immediate gain, it should be shared by the w heat ; 

 — -these are all questions in the minds of practical farmers, at 

 least — as is shown by their opposite conduct upon these heads — 

 which the science of agriculture, if it ever become a science, is 

 bound therefore to answer. There is also, as to the very formation 

 of farm-manure, an important difference of management between 

 ourselves on the one hand, and the oldest practical farmers, our 

 neighbours the Flemings, on the other. The Flemish cattle are not 

 allowed to run at large on the pastures, but are tied up in build- 

 ings, where they receive a daily supply of green food newly cut, 

 and a tank is formed near at hand, which receives the runnings of 

 the stalls, and from which the liquid manure is carried in tumbrils 

 to the arable ground. Not only are our farm-yards managed less 

 closely in this important particular, but, as our cattle are in the 

 field for a great part of the twelvemonth, it may be questioned 

 whether their droppings do not in a great degree lose their fer- 

 tilising property by the action of the atmosphere as they lie scat- 

 tered upon the surface. There is no doubt that, on the other 

 hand, rank tufts of herbage are produced by the excess of manure 

 in spots of ground upon which it falls. The advocates of the 

 soiling system, as it is called, have acted upon that system for cen- 

 turies, and they assert that a very large saving is effected by the 

 uniform consumption of the grass, which is another result of this 

 mode of management. A system backed by such high and 

 ancient authority must surely deserve inquiry into its merits. 

 This last question, however, is a double one, involving on the one 

 side the comparative amount of fertilising substance produced for 

 the use of the soil, and on the other the beneficial effect of the 

 food on the condition of the animals themselves : but this second 

 branch belongs to a distinct head of inquiry — the feeding of 

 cattle. 



