Peacock : The Fenland Soils. 



manures which are best for peat and silt according to the crop 

 grown. This lecture must draw to a close. I am sure even 

 the lady members of the Union who are present feel they have 

 been silent long enough. 



I should just like, however, to point out the double danger 

 of powerful nitrate manures, and call on my friend, Mr. E. 

 Wightman Bell, F.C.S., as a public analyst, to support my 

 experiences gained during the last ten years. The function, 

 first and only, of nitrogen is making plant growth. In the peat 

 there is more than sufficient nitrogen as it decays under farming 

 operations, and the silt is very rich in it. The difficulty of both 

 soils is that available bases are scarce in proportion to their 

 richness, therefore add lime in one form or another. If seed is 

 the thing you are seeking, as in growing wheat, barley, and 

 oats, avoid nitrogen manures altogether — lime and superphos- 

 phates are what you require. Use the latter as a starter and 

 food for root crops, and for potatoes along with potash 

 manures. One danger of using nitrogen manures, like nitrate 

 of soda, is it kills off or stops the action for the time of the 

 nutrifying soil bacteria, which are the farmers greatest friends. 

 A dressing which in a wet season is safe simply ruins the crop 

 in a dry one. Manuring on peat and silt should tend to make 

 the seed finer and richer in quality — more like 'the topland 

 growth.' 



As I have named agricultural matters I should like to give 

 voice to a practical piece of experience as well recognised by 

 Fenland farmers as by other agriculturists. Formerly there 

 were only two trades which a man could follow without any 

 training or early practical experience — politics and preaching — 

 but in these days others have been added to the list — agriculture 

 notably being a case in point. 



The farmer nowadays has too many friends and advisers, 

 self-called to their useless undertaking. Most of them are as 

 ignorant of the arts required by the practical farmer, who has to 

 make his living, that is, to make his capital pay a good return, 

 as they are of ordinary common sense. Their heads are as full 

 of book learning as their mouths are of words. Leave 

 book-learning and manuring severely alone in practical work 

 when it relates to other parts of England or foreign lands. 

 There is a better way than that of picking up experience. It is 

 ever valuable in proportion to its cost, so let it cost somebody 

 else something — as much as possible. Look over the ditches 

 and dykes of your own broad Fenland, and watch the clever, 



1902 J une 1. 



