LIME AND VARIOUS ARTIFICIAL MANURES. 



115 



necessarily deeper in the soil than the guano, and, as compared 

 with farm-yard manure alone, the grass came away fully as fresh 

 next spring, but by midsummer there was very little diflerence, 

 and the effects on the succeeding crop were pretty much alike. 

 With regard to the artificial manures above, as compared with the 

 farm-yard manure with and without its assistance, I found that 

 No. li[. gave the best permanent results. Nos. IV. and V. were 

 about equal. Any of these three would give eight bushels of barley 

 per acre more than the farm-yard manure alone, but farm-yard 

 manure along with guano was equal for barley. I would set down 

 the different effects of each in the succeeding crops as follows, 

 tabulated according to the list already given, and showing the 

 deficiency in money value as compared with the one which gave 

 the best results, namely. No. II. : — 



According to the above results, the fourth and fifth are the 

 most profitable ; although so much deficient in their results, their 

 first cost is so much less, that it leaves a large balance in their 

 favour. I have sown none down after potatoes for the past three 

 years without farm- yard manure, because I look on potatoes as 

 being a very exhausting crop for light soils, and despite the result 

 of the experiments, I have a hankering after farm-yard manure, 

 the good effects of which are not exhausted by the first three 

 succeeding crops ; but in the various experiments I have made, 

 it has always paid to use artificial manure along with it for a 

 grain crop. I sow the whole of my barley with a six-inch drill, 

 as near the surface as possible to be covered, the quantity of seed 

 used being at the rate of three bushels per acre. A fine 

 mechanical condition of manures and soil, and a dry seed bed, 

 are far more important with barley than with oats, as the plant 

 is much more tender. Care should, therefore, be taken in 

 districts liable to hoar-frost, not to sow too early, as the plant 

 gets frosted down and is very difficult to start again. For this 



