of
value in restoring to good land, after cropping, those particular
advantages which good land alone can give, and in helping better than
any other manure, when applied to poor land, to bring it up to the level
of good land in those particular merits which belong alone to fine
soils. I speak now of an inherent value in good soils, beyond that
attaching to them as mere reservoirs of abundant plant-food. For
instance, one may supply a poor soil by artificial manure with much more
food--and in a highly soluble condition--than is needed by the crop to
be grown upon it, and yet not get so good a crop as upon a naturally
richer but otherwise similar soil less abundantly filled with
immediately available food. This may arise from a more perfect
distribution of the plant-food in the rich soil, or from the steady way
in which it becomes available to the crop, as well as for other reasons.
But whatever the cause, there, I think, is the broad fact of the power
of farmyard manure to enrich poor soils, so to speak, more
naturally--that is, in a way which makes them more nearly correspond to
better soils than artificial manures can."

Hence the indirect benefit to the farmer from farmyard manure is
probably greater than its direct value as a mere manure. And the usual
provision and use of it amongst all straw-growing farmers is
sufficiently justified. The extent, however, to which that course may be
beneficially carried, is one of the most important of the many difficult
economic and scientific problems which the farmer has to face.

On the economic side must of course be considered the cost of
manufacture in individual instances, as ruled by the market value of the
straw, and the different circumstances and conditions under which the
various farm animals are kept and fed (I have the figures by me of one
well-known farmer, which show the cost to him of every ton of home-made
manure to be 20s. or more); the price the resultant crops may be
expected to command; the cost at the moment of artificial manures, &c.,
&c. Whilst on the scientific side must be considered the nature of the
soil, the particular rotation of crops, &c.

It was, amongst others, just these scientific and yet very definite and
practical problems we have tried to throw light on in the series of
field experiments conducted for several years by the Norfolk Chamber of
Agriculture. (See reprint of summary of same in last year's Report of
the Board of Agriculture.)