286 = 20 
British Agi'iculture. 
brought into action, and which should dispel all fear of oui 
being starved into submission in case of war ; and this without 
reckoning anything on the immense reserve power of cereal 
production which is stored up in the pasture lands, ready in case 
of need. 
Likely to check It is a power, moreover, that will check any considerable per- 
a permanent manent rise in the price of wheat. A decline in the acreage 
price of wheat. Under wheat, when not caused by a bad seed-time, is the natural 
result of low price ; but when the price rises, increased acreage 
quickly follows. Were the price to rise steadily, and show 
signs of permanence, the second-crop system would extend, and 
continue to do so until the increase of produce was found to 
check the rise in price. Barley may be taken after barley 
with more success on many soils than wheat ; and where there 
is reason to suppose that a second crop of wheat, however care- 
fully the ground may have been managed and manured, may be 
likely to fail, barley may, with great probability, be expected 
to succeed. 
The use of nitrate of soda or other sources of ammonia, com- 
bined with phosphatic manures, promises to be a more permanent 
resource to British agriculture than Peruvian guano, which unites 
the same properties in itself, but seems likely soon to become 
Autumn cul- exhausted. Autumn culture, aided by the command of time 
ture and which steam-power has given to the agriculturist, and that sup 
whT'inip^orteil plemented by spring top-dressings of nitrates and phosj)hates 
manures, have have made continuous corn-cropping possible and profitable 
given gj'^^^^ without injury to the land, whenever soil and circumstance 
crops, render such a practice necessary. The old plan of relying o 
the resources of the farm by depending on the manure mad 
upon it, while the corn and meat were sold away, will n( 
always answer now. Commerce and mercantile enterprise lia\ 
provided other means for maintaining fertility at a clicaj> 
cost, and in a more commodious and portable form. One c\\ 
of nitrate of soda will give a more certain return' of corn th; 
fifty times its weight in farmyard-manure, and can be carri' 
to and spread upon the ground at one-fiftieth of the laboi 
Hreat value to The proof of this, in Mr. Lawcs' experiments, has been beli 
British ngri- iI^q country for more than thirty years, and yet it is oi 
nilturc ofMr. . ■ • -l , ,i . / ' 
l.:.u-es' expcri- beginning to be generally recognised. 
incuts. To Mr. J. B. Lawes the agriculture of this country is nn 
indebted than to any other living man. For 33 ^ears he I 
conducted, at his own cost, a series of experiments on 
estate in Hertfordshire, the results of which have been annii.i 
published, and the farm itself, with every detail of the W( 
has been laid open to public insj)cction and criticism. Ani' 
other valualjle results, one most useful fact has been elicii 
