684 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[April 1, 1902. 
seems to have held stood in this instance.' Does the 
excellent and venerable secretary of the Buchan 
Agricultural Society and his committee consider 
the above is ' strictly correct and not in the least 
exaggerated ?' 
Referring to the death of the late Mr. Bruce of 
Inverquhornery (in same letter) he says — ' He was 
one of the most successful landlords in Scotland.' 
Everyone who knew Mr. Bruce could quite endorse 
this remark. Not only were his stock of the very 
best description, but his fields were in the highest 
state of cultivation. Mr. Duncan boasts he has 
never spent ' one penny ' on artificial manures at 
Monyruy. This revered and ' most successful 
farming landlord ' to my knowledge laid down his 
turnip crop not only with abundance of cattle 
manure, but adding to it in many instances some 
19 cwt. artificials per acre ! This may have had 
something to do with his success, but of course ' one 
must cut the coat according to the cloth,' and so 
far as my observations go, most farmers add to the 
cattle manure the amount of artificials they con- 
sider necessary to produce full and profitable crops. 
In a letter of date June 1st, 1900, I notice the 
following observations : — ''We find a great deal of 
nonsense (sic) in the columns of the agricultural 
press about the good that has been done by science, 
in discovering various artificial manures, which 
have aided our farmers in attaining their position 
in the fore rank of agriculture. It is not for me 
to set myself up as an opponent to the theories of 
those scientists, but having tried I believe every 
hind of artificial manure, I consider I have some 
right to say a word on the subject- My present 
farm (Monyruy) had been badly konnachcd, to use 
a good Scotch word, for about twenty years, so 
when I signed my lease, I knew I had a consider- 
able uphill work before me, but by an ample 
dressing of cattle majmre I so surprised the soil, 
which had for years been accustomed to a scanty 
application of artificials, that it forthwith pro- 
ceeded to produce excellent crops. Not only do 
I manufacture a large quantity of bulky manure 
on the farn),but I buy much more from any of 
my neighbours who are willing to sell, and who 
prefer the cheaper style of manuring by artificials. 
In course of time people began to remark my fine 
crops, and supposed my bill for artificials was a 
heavy one, to which my reply invariably was 
' Not a penny.' 
^As I stand indicted for some seven years of the 
twenty, wherein the farm of Monyruy was so badly 
kcnnached, and being Mr Duncm's immediate 
predecessor, I distinctly plead ' Not guilty, sir.' 
As regards the ' nonsense written about artificial 
manures,' you will find in the last issue (report 
No. 2, copy cf which I can produce), of the Turriff 
and Garrioch Analytical Association, season 1901 — 
' Experiments with artificial manures in turnip 
culture (mark you, ivithotd cattle dung) when no 
manure of any description was applied, on the 
eight farms tlie crops weighed on an average 11 
tons 11 cwts and 8 lb. per acre. With the addition 
of phosphates and potash to the value of 26s Id 
per acre, the average crop lose to 20 tons 12 cwts 
8 qrs. and 12 lb, and with an application of phos- 
phates, potash, and nitroaen, at a cost of 35s 3d 
per acre, the average crup was 22 tons 3 cwts 3 
qrs. 20 lb,— well-nigh double the average of the 
no-maimrc plots.' Please allow Mr Duncan to give 
us the details of the ' every kind of artificial 
itn(i,nv.re Im tiicd Iiefore he discarded them, and 
the fe«ultH he obtained.' 
In addition to paying my predecessor on my 
entering Monyruy (the venerable Di Anderson — 
long may he live and look happy) £162 13s l^d 
for cattle manure, in the first year of my tenancy, 
I also paid the Northern Agricultural Company 
the sum of £226 18s 6d, chiefly for bones and 
lime — indeed I may state that before I 
entered into possession of the farm, I applied al«ng 
with the grasses I sowed on one field of 20 acres, 
4 cwt. per acre of bone meal (I hope this paid Dr. 
Anderson — manuring his way-going crop) at any 
rate it paid me, as that field of 20 acres or so grazed 
45 two-year-old bullocks and a mare and foal, the 
whole of the following year (George Bruce, Aber- 
deen, supplied the grass seeds) with the exception 
of 14 days they pastured elsewhere. Is that field 
now doing as well ; or is it not to a great extent 
overgrown with reeds and rushes '! 
As regards cattle manure which most farmers 
very earefnl.y look after and ' don't sell to neigh- 
bours ' — at least in my twenty years' experience — 
(luring my tenancy of Monyruy there were from 
100 to 120 cattle always on the farm, also 3 to 4 
pairs of horses, besides sliepp and a herd of the very 
highly appreciated Yorkshire pigs. The corn crops 
would have averaged over 100 acres yearly, and 
being worked, as I have already stated, according 
to terras of lease on a six-course rotation of three 
grasses, your farming readers can estimate the 
quantity of cattle manure made and applied during 
my tenancy. 
I would be glad to have, and your numerous 
readers, sir, will appreciate, the information as to 
the quantity of cattle manure Mr. Duncan has 
been able to purchase from his neighbours yearly 
since Whitsunday, 1888; and also, as to the 
manufacturing a large quantity of bulky 
manure on the farm. Does he refer to what can 
be done with ' herring refuse,' seeing he says he 
does 'not keep a cow,' and consequently is de- 
pendent on some neighbours for milk to bis own 
porridge 1 
In his July epistle, 1900, he writes:—' I have no 
hesitation in stating that a rent of one pound per 
acre per annum is the highest that anyone should 
pay and expect to hold his own, or perhaps make 
a little profit, and this I may remark is the figure 
I pay for my own farm. One thing, however, I 
would caution an amateur farmer against, and that 
is taking a farm because it is low-rented. For 
example, I know one man, a far from practical 
farmer, who had leased a place at 2os an acre, 
but found in the course of a few years that he was 
losing money, so, having succeeded in breaking his 
lease, he went to the other extreme and rented 
one at lis, but the farm he threw up used to give 
biim six quarters of oats to the acre, whilst the one 
he took so cheaply only gave him 3 to 4 quarters, 
and so the last stage of that man was worse than the 
first. A very low-rented farm is one that is not worth 
taking at present, and only farms that can be 
worked up to the highest state of cultivation are 
worth taking on lease now-a-days. The low prices 
ruling for grain, beef and mutton, compel one not 
only to secure a good farm at a fair rent, but also to 
cultivate it at high pressure, in order to pay the 
labour bill and have something over, farming on 
the cheap won't do at all, and if high farming won'fc 
pay, certainly low farming will not do so.' 
The latter sentences of this paragraph most 
farmers will endorse — but as to the ' example of a 
farmer leaving the 25s farm and taking one at lis 
a,a acre,' 1 do not think this is strictly correct, and 
