35 
CONTINUOUS CORN GROWING IN ITS 
PRACTICAL AND CHEMICAL ASPECTS. 
In the days of high prices for corn attention was naturally 
turned to the question as to how far it would be possible 
to abandon the ordinary rotation system of farming and to 
substitute the growing of corn year after year. When, in 1861, 
the late Mr. John Prout, fresh from farming in Canada, came 
into possession of Blount’s Farm, Sawbridgeworth, Herts., 
corn growing was essentially a paying concern. The world- 
famed experiments of Lawes and Gilbert, carried out 
continuously from 1843, had thrown much light on the 
requirements of corn crops and had shown that, if regard 
be had to these requirements, their growth year after year on 
the same land, and by the use of artificial manures alone, was 
a possibility. What, however, was needed was that some one 
should take up the work from the side of practical farming 
and demonstrate whether it was possible to carry out such 
a system and to make it pay. If this were feasible it was 
evident that a wide area of strong land eminently suitable 
for wheat growing could be remuneratively cultivated. This 
was the work which the late Mr. Prout set himself to do. 
Two main problems presented themselves at the outset. 
First, Were there any practical difficulties in the way as 
regards the cultivation of the land ? Could it be kept clean and 
in good tilth ? Secondly, Was it likely that the soil under 
such cultivation would become gradually deteriorated, so that 
its fertility could not be maintained and that it could no 
longer continue to produce profitable crops ? 
Other considerations had to be taken into account, such as 
the likelihood of corn prices remaining as they were, and 
the particular conditions under which such a system could be 
carried on ; but the two problems named above were those 
of primary importance in deciding as to the adoption of the 
system. It is to these that attention will be chiefly directed 
in the present article. 
d 2 
