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XIX. — On the Maintenance of Fertility in new Arable Land. 
By John C. Morton. 
The following: observations are communicated to the Society, in 
consequence of Mr. Pusey's request that I should state the cir- 
cumstances connected with this subject, which have occurred at 
Whitfield farm since it has been drained and broken up out of 
old grass land — now nearly eight years ago. They are prefaced 
by some remarks on the theory of the question ; for that may now 
be considered sufficiently well established to claim our attention 
before we enter on what, at the best, is but one of the cases in 
which theory has met with a pretty full development. 
But I may, peihaps, be permitted in the first place to refer ^to 
the pressing importance of this subject ; for must it not be consi- 
dered to involve the great agricultural question of the day? Po- 
pulation increases rapidly — an imperative demand exists for an 
increased production of food, for an increased suppl}' of well- 
paid employment — yet more than one-half of the cultivable land 
in this country is now yielding grass ! The co-existence of these 
facts is a strange thing. Surely it is possible to grow something 
better, more nutritive, more remunerating than grass — something 
involving the profitable employment of more labour in its culti- 
vation. If all the plants the farmer grows be arranged in the 
order of their value, grass must stand Zoff(?s? in the scale: wheat, 
barley, oats, with their large and nutritive seeds, food for man — • 
the turnip, carrot, parsnep, mangold-wurzel, and potato, with 
their large fleshy roots and tubers, food for man and for beast, 
must all take the precedence of grass ; its strawy stems and 
narrow leaves can hardly ever be so profitable to grow — and 
surely never in those districts of this country where a dense popu- 
lation is but scantily supplied with either food or employment. 
These thoughts will occur to every one who claims any acquaint- 
ance with agriculture ; and their truth, as will be shown in the 
sequel, is borne out by experience. 
Why is it, then, that so large an extent of this country is still 
merely pasture land? The reason I believe to be twofold. It is 
to be found, 
1st. In the general dislike of landowners to the growth of any 
other crop wherever this one has obtained an establishment; and, 
2ndly. In the absence, generally speaking, of sufficient capital 
in the hands of the present tenants of grass lands to qualify them 
as cultivators of any other plant. 
With the circumstances which have hindered a more extensive 
application of capital in agriculture, I have no concern here : the 
VOL. VII. 
