Nourishment is as essential to the land as it is to the animal kingdom. This is particularly so in countries, such as the British Isles, where the land has been worked assiduously, year after year, for centuries. The co-relation between fertilizers and crop yields is too obvious to demand other than mere mention. The main problem, in such circumstances, is to secure sufficient quantities of the nutritive constituents necessary, and at a price which shall render their utilization profitable to the farmer, and enable the resultant food products to be brought within the reach of the public at an attractive figure. The worship of hygiene and the introduction of practices conducing to the enhanced health and welfare of the community have served to deprive the land of a heavy proportion of that food which, under primitive conditions, it freely receives. Furthermore, the contemporary agriculturist is not content with receiving from the land just what Nature, if left to herself, is disposed to contribute. He practises forced or intensive measures, and in so doing naturally accelerates and accentuates the exhaustion of the soil. In so far as these islands are concerned--it was equally applicable to other countries similarly affected--the stringency in natural manures was aggravated by the acquisition of all available horse-power for the battle-fronts as well as the need to husband straw for military foraging purposes. So, to ensure the safety and yield of his crops, the farmer has been compelled to fall back upon divers substances, natural as well as chemical, or as they are more popularly termed, artificial manures, although the word “artificial” in this interpretation is somewhat ambiguous, seeing that the materials employed, for the most part, enter into the scheme of Nature. Under normal conditions British soil was liberally fed with these chemical fertilizers, especially of superphosphate, nitrate of soda, and potash. And for all of these three indispensable soil-foods we were dependent upon foreign sources of supply, which naturally suffered interruption more or less as a result of the outbreak of hostilities. During 1913 we imported 970,185 tons of these manuring agents, for which we paid £3,333,612--$16,668,060. These figures do not include potash, appreciable quantities of which, drawn from the German mines, were used. But, taking the other two materials, phosphate occupied first place in point of quantity with 539,016 tons valued at £874,166--$4,370,830--while the Chilian nitrate claimed premier position in value at £1,490,669--$7,453,345--for which we received 140,926 tons.