CULTIVATION BY THE USE OF DEEP-ROOTING 



PLANTS. 



After a varied agricultural experience of more than forty- 

 five years in India and Scotland, I am thoroughly convinced, 

 from much practical work in the field, combined with studies 

 at home, that our farming system here lacks solidity, and is 

 unable to contend with these times, because its foundation is 

 faulty. The structure raised on it is therefore insecure, and 

 from many points of view. Its foundation ought to consist 

 of a due admixture of decaying vegetable matter or humus, 

 with the mineral constituents of the soil. The latter are 

 sufficiently supplied in the case of most soils ; the former is 

 largely wanting in nearly all our arable soil. Without an 

 ample supply of humus in the soil the plant has an unhealthy 

 home, and is therefore liable to disease, and unable effectually 

 to contend with adverse seasons. Without an adequate 

 supply of that humus which is the very life of the soil, both 

 chemically and, what is even of greater importance, physi- 

 cally, the mineral constituents remain largely inert, or, in 

 other words, are only in small degree available as plant food, 

 and it is evident that they are not so, for otherwise mankind 

 would long ago have reduced his land to a state of almost 

 utter sterility. 



At a recent meeting 400 Aberdeenshire farmers resolved 

 that one of their three great difficulties (the other two 

 being dear labour and bad seasons) arose from the 

 exhaustion of the soil. And yet, Mr. W. N. Tod, writing 

 in the "Scottish Farmer" of October 19, 1901, shows that 

 even in the first nine inches of one of his fields — " One of a 

 very poor farm " (my italics) — there is nitrogen 6.30olbs., 

 phosphoric acid 6.6oolbs., and potash io.2oolbs. He further 

 points out that if you consumed half a ton of linseed cake on 

 the land you would expect and probably obtain an increase in 



