Country Life
CARDE_NERS AND SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES.
Wherever I have been (luring the last week or so, quaint evidence has met me of the growth of agricultural science in different directions. But the scientific methods are being adopted chiefly by amateurs who have little or no direct concern with farming; by gardeners, by green and lawn keepers, by race-horse owners. To be precise : one country- house gardener rejoiced not a little in the exceptional size of his rubbish heap, due to the abnormal growth of weeds during our wet summer. Another was not content with rejoicing at such an unsightly spectacle. He was cutting rough grass in order to make a second heap that should serve the same purpose as the first. He had discovered that his gardener and his bailiff preferred manures compounded of such green stuff, treated with the proper microbic culture, even before good farm-yard manure. His estimate, of the relative value of the two may be questioned ; but it is true that the manure-making experiment, begun during the War under the encouragement of the Rothamsted experimental station and carried on largely through the interest of Lord Elveden, has definitely put into our. possession a new sort of wealth. Any straw or green stuff properly treated provides a precious source of fertility. The wealth of the world is permanently increased by discovery and invention.
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