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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



was 800 gs., and lie put him by for a 'year, and then finding his form was gone, sold him to Lord 

 Jersey and Sir John Shelley, in whose stable he broke his thigh. He also purchased Phoenix from 

 his lordship, and sold him to Mr. Ferguson, of Harker Lodge, near Carlisle; and it was to Lord Jersey 

 that he effected his most successful sale of a yearling by Lottery out of Tambourine for 800 gs. His 

 prices for yearlings seldom exceeded £200, and he generally sold the produce of his five mares at Don- 

 caster. In his hey-day he engaged them pretty deeply, but he was very much sickened of breeding for 

 the turf by the difficulties he encountered in making the vendees pay up the forfeits if the purchases 

 turned out badly, or the contingencies when they won. Hernandez, whom he sold into France with 

 Lanercost, was his last blood-sire purchased. 



Mr. Kirby died at York of old age, on Sunday the 28th of last February, Two sons by his first mar- 

 riage survive him ; and about fourteen or fifteen years ago he had married the widow of Mr. Sykes, the 

 well-known trainer. The Post and the Paddock will speak further to the adventures of this old English 

 worthy, especially in his dealings with the Emperor of all the Russias. 



BARLEY 



BY CUTHBERT W. JOHNSON, ESQ., F.R.S. 



In this the time of barley sowing, at which we 

 ai-e again arrived, we can hardly direct our attention 

 to a more useful agricultural theme. It will be to 

 our advantage in several ways if we spend au April 

 evening in such an enquiry. This will be the more 

 practically useful since there are now several emi- 

 nent chemists who have lately published the results 

 of their valuable and most laborious investigations 

 on the barley plant. These true friends of their 

 country have examined, not only the produce of 

 barley grown on the same soil for a series of sea- 

 sons (both immanured, and also manured with vari- 

 ous fertilizers), but they have extended their re- 

 searches to the varying composition of the seed of 

 barley produced on different soils. It will, happily 

 for the better understanding of our subject, be un- 

 necessary to do more than epitomise the invaluable 

 matter of reports, which ever and anon almost seem 

 mtended by their cloudy verbiage to test the farmer's 

 ability in deep diggings. 



The reader will, in the paper to which I am about 

 to refer, find abundant materials of the highest 

 practical value. He will ever, in commencing such 

 studies, feel assured that although in the majority 

 of instances the chemist's labours elucidate the cor- 

 rectness of long-established practices ; yet in others 

 they shadow forth new objects for the agricultural 

 student's cautious trials ; and, in any case, he will not 

 forget the great truth, that although we have long 

 been steadily increasing our knowledge of the haljits 

 of barley, yet that there are many questions, with 

 regard to this plant, that yet remain to be explained 

 —mysteries, wliich when hereafter made clear, will 

 probably give rise to other equally valuable and in- 

 teresting practical researches. 



The growth of barley on the same land for a series 

 of years is an important question, which has for 



several years past occupied the attention of Messrs. 

 J. B. Lawes and Gilbert "Jour. Roy. Ag. So." vol. 

 xviii, p. 454). 



They set apart for these peculiar trials, which 

 commenced in 1852, about five acres of ground at 

 Rothamsted, in Hertfordshire. These were divided 

 into nearly square plots, of about one-fifth of au acre 

 each. The land had grown clover in 1849, wheat 

 in 1850, and barley dressed with sulphate of ammonia 

 in l85l. It was, therefore, as the reporters remark, 

 "in a somewhat exhausted condition, as far as the 

 after-growth of grain was concerned, and it was hence 

 in a suitable state for testing the effects of different 

 manures on the barley crop." In these trials two 

 plots, one at either of the experimental land, were 

 left unmanured, and it is the mean result of these 

 that is given in the subsequent little tables. 



The farmyard dung employed was from the open 

 yard, and not from highly-fed animals. The " mixed 

 alkalies" comprised per acre : 



300 lbs. of sulphate of potash. 

 200 lbs. of sulphate of soda. 

 lOO lbs. of sulphate of magnesia. 



The superphosphate of lime was composed per 

 acre of 



200 lbs . of calcined bone-dust. 



150 lbs. of sulphuric acid (sp, grav. 1.7. 



The " mixed minerals" consisted of a mixtm-e of 

 the superphosphate and the " mixed alkalies." The 

 seed, the Chevalier, was always drilled at- the rate 

 of 2 J bushels per acre in 1852 and 1853, and 7 

 pecks per acre in 1854-5-G and '7. 



In the following report the produce is given in 

 bushels and pecks. First, then, the produce of the 

 soil entirel yunmanured was, 



1852. I 1853. ( 1854. I 1855. I 1856. I 1857. 

 27 3^ I 26 J 35 I 33 1 I 14 1 I 29 1 

 Annual average per acre 27 bushels 3 pecks. 



