Continuous Corn Growing. 
65 
(Journal,' Second Series, vol. iii.), after inspecting Mr. Front's 
farm, declared that " the course here pursued is exceptional, 
and must soon come to an end ; manure will soon be wanted." 
This foreboding has not been justified. The system has been 
strictly persisted in. Eight crops have since been reaped, 
showing no falling off either in quantity or quality, all of them 
\ much over the average of the district, yielding an acreable 
return of 10/., exhibiting an annual acreable profit of 405. Phos- 
phates of lime and nitrate of soda — the staple manures used by 
Messrs. Prout and INIiddleditch — certainly do not furnish all the 
; materials requisite for the nutrition of plants, and it has been 
' declared that sooner or later other elements, at first present in 
the soil, will become exhausted. Granting that in some soils 
j such exhaustion may occur, the failing potash, chlorine, silica, 
or other element might be cheaply supplied. Even under ordi- 
I nary farm-management the replacing of articles of plant-food, 
I which are actually wanting in a particular soil, is frequently a 
more convenient and economical method of maintaining fertility 
j than the supplying, as in farmyard-manure, of a general assort- 
ment of all the elements of plant-food. The practical problem 
: appears to be — With a given soil and surroundings, what are 
the cheapest raw materials from which to manufacture the par- 
ticular crops desired ? 
i Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert's experimental plots furnish the 
I best practical refutation of the supposed fleeting and unstable 
effects of artificial manures. For upwards of twenty-five years 
phosphates and nitrate of soda, at a cosi; of about 6O5. per acre, 
have maintained rather poor heavy clay-land in a maximum 
state of fertility, producing corn-crops continuously, and return- 
ing, on an average of twenty-eight years, nearly 36 bushels of 
wheat, and during twenty-three years nearly 50 bushels of barley. 
The averages for the last ten years being better than those pre- 
viously obtained, justify the conclusion that there is no retro- 
gression, and that the same management which has economically 
secured this high fertility can permanently maintain it. 
The farms described admirably illustrate the power which the 
judicious outlay of capital exerts in developing the resources of 
the soil. Nor does a long period necessarily elapse before good 
returns are realised. Within a dozen years Blount's Farm has 
doubled its selling or letting value, whilst seven years' spirited 
management have already added fully 20 per cent, to the value 
of the Blunsdon farms. Former tenants, at much lower rents, 
regularly becoming impoverished, are superseded by men of skill 
and capital, who, although weighted with enhanced rents to meet 
the interest chargeable for costly improvements, manage to double 
the acreable produce and make the concern profitable. Similar 
results are obtainable elsewhere. What has been done may be 
VOL. XL— s. S. F 
