40 
Agricultural Progress and 
allowed to overshadow the crop, or the corn be smothered with 
weeds, even the small natural produce may not be reaped from 
the land. But all these faults are visible on the surface, and 
with respect to the unseen capabilities of the soil itself we now 
know, that nothing short of the most wilful and long-continued 
cropping without any return whatever — something worse even 
than Mr. Lawes's twenty -four successive crops without' manure 
or fallow — can materially injure the staple of the soil. It fol- 
lows that, after any ordinary amount of bad farming, sufficient 
manure of the right kind will quickly restore to the soil, not 
its natural productiveness, which it is scarcely possible to destroy, 
but that acquired fertility which we may now describe as " good 
condition" without fear of being misunderstood. 
But this is far from being all that we have learnt at Rotham- 
sted. When a farm has been reduced by bad management to a 
low state of productiveness, what is the right manure to apply ? 
In 1864 the merest tyro in farming can answer this question. 
Nitrogen for corn — phosphorus for turnips — are household words. 
Twenty years ago what would have been the stereotyped answer ? 
" The midden is the mither of the meal-kist." This is a maxim 
of much practical sagacity ; but unfortunately for the owner and 
occupier of an impoverished farm in old days, the midden could 
not be extended ad libitum when it was wanted over the whole 
farm at once ; and accordingly years were expended and patience 
sorely tried before the traces of hard cropping and scanty ma- 
nuring could be effaced. 
The great benefits conferred upon agriculture by Mr. Lawes 
have been stated in strong terms. It must not, therefore, be sup- 
posed that there is any wish to ignore or depreciate the labours 
and discoveries of Boussingault, Liebig, and other eminent men 
of science. Their analytical investigations, by showing us of 
what materials our crops were composed, formed a sound basis 
and an indispensable starting-point for Lawes's experiments. In 
an agricultural article it is not necessary to do more than offer a 
cordial tribute of acknowledgment to men whose reputation 
in the annals of science is world-wide. 
The great difference in value to agriculturists between the 
labours of Lawes and those of the scientific men who had 
preceded him may be illustrated by the familiar toy known 
as the " Chinese puzzle. " The puzzle had been taken to 
pieces by previous investigators. Lawes set to work to put it 
together again. They said (for instance) wheat is "composed 
of certain chemical substances, in stated proportions. Lawes 
tried if, by restoring these materials to the soil, he could get 
back the wheat, or (which amounted to the same thing) get an 
additional quantity of wheat from the land ; and he followed up 
