the Royal Agricultural Society. 
39 
over and successfully passed tlie great gulf which separates the 
rule of thumb from the rule of three. The man who paved the 
way for their advance, and manfully led the van through year 
after year of costly, intricate, and ill-appreciated labour, was Mr. 
Lawes, of Rothamsted. He it was who taught us that the soil 
has a natural standard of fertility, which enables it without the 
aid of manure to produce year after year a certain number 
of bushels of wheat or other grain. On his own farm at Roth- 
ampsted, though the land is by no means of first-rate quality, 
this average is about 16 bushels of wheat per acre, and has not 
diminished, though twenty-four crops of corn have been taken suc- 
cessively, of which the last twenty have been wheat. This has 
been done not only without the application of any kind of manure, 
but also without the intervention of any fallow or fallow crop. 
It must be born'e in mind that this average produce varies, within 
certain limits, according to the character of the season, and that 
it may be reduced by bad management, such as improper seed- 
ing or foulness of the land. But, with fair play, all land has a 
certain standard of natural produce. Such is the important pro- 
position which Mr. Lawes has worked out under the eyes of the 
nation, and which must in future form the basis of all rational 
farming. In order to appreciate the full importance of this dis- 
covery it is only necessary to look at the new light thus thrown 
on the nature and capabilities of the soil. Twenty years ago, 
what could be more unintelligible than the terms used to de- 
scribe the comparative fertility of different farms ? Such a one 
was said to be in " high condition ;" such another was " out of 
conditioll. ,, Who could define " condition " ? It was considered 
a kind of mystery, of the real nature of which the experienced 
practical man was favoured with occasional glimpses, but which 
it was hopeless to attempt to explain to the uninitiated. 
Now that we know that land has a natural store of the mate- 
rials required for the production of grain, which confers upon it a 
certain moderate standard of fertility, we have the key to the 
solution of this mystery. Land that is thoroughly run out means 
land that is reduced to its original standard of productiveness. 
Any "condition" that it possesses in addition to this, be it more, 
or be it less, consists simply of the remains of previous crops and 
previous manurings. We are designedly leaving out of conside- 
ration all questions of tidy or slovenly management, such as those 
connected with draining, fencing, weeding, &c. If wet land be 
undrained, its standard of fertility will clearly be lower than if 
drained : if drained land be neglected, and the outfalls allowed 
to choke up, it will revert more and more towards the naturally 
lower standard of the undrained land ; if land be divided into 
small fields, and high overgrown fences or hedgerow-trees be 
