THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



433 



these experiments themselves, it must be explained at 

 the outset, that in point of quality, the soil on which 

 they were conducted is a medium clay loam, more sui- 

 table for wheat than turnip or barley husbandry. It 

 rests on a deep red clay subsoil, which again reposes on 

 a porous chalk, producing adequate natural drainage. 

 The species of crops experimented on, embraced all the 

 usual members of rotation husbandry ; but the follow- 

 ing observations shall be confined to wheat and barley, 

 beginning with the trials with wheat. 



Throughout the entire series of experiments, the ob- 

 ject in view was to determine the relative fertilizing 

 properties of various special manures used separately ; 

 and in order to free the experimental results from any 

 residual eftects of prior management, a field was selected 

 which had previously undergone a succession of un- 

 manured crops calculated to reduce it to its natural 

 power of vegetative production. With regard to the 

 substances put in trial, they consisted, in one set of the 

 sxperiments, of alkaline salts and superphosphate of 

 lime, intermixed, but destitute of any nitrogenous ele- 

 ment ; in another experimental series, nitrogenous salts 

 only were used ; whilst a third admixture consisted of 

 jlkalies, superphosphate of lime, and nitrogenous salts, 

 ill in combination. Previous to beginning ttie trials, 

 ;he field was divided into plots, each appropriated to a 

 separate manurial treatment ; and, in order to form by 

 ihe quantum of its produce a common standard of com- 

 parison, one of the subdivisions was cultivated and 

 cropped year after year without manure of any kind. 



AH the plots received the same treatment in point of 

 iillage ; but what the particulars of this important de- 

 partment were, unfortunately is not reported. It is 

 mderstood, however, that the seed was deposited in 

 3rills at eight inches apart, and that a series of opcra- 

 ;ion8 was yearly performed to keep the land clean from 

 fveeds. The procedure began with crop 1845, and ter- 

 minated with that of 1856. A fair selection from the 

 multitudinous results recorded by the experimentalists 

 .n the course of this long period is given in abstract, in 

 ;he following table : 



Table II. 



Experiments. 



1. Average produce of the"! 

 coutinuou3ly uumanured 1 

 plot, cropped year after j 

 year without intermiseion j 



2. Average produce of vari-") 

 0U3 plot3 dressed with al- I 

 kaliea and superphosphate f 

 of lime J 



J. Average produce of vari-T 

 ous plots dressed with ui- ^ 

 trogenous salts alone J 



4. Average produce of vario 

 ous plots dressed with al- 1 

 kalies, superphosphate of | 

 lime, and nitrogenous salts J 



'o'S S 



^ a 



a* '-' 51 



a a S- 



a «,- 



ea o 





B. p. 



13 



10.2 



28.1 



6 30.1 



i g E 



S S a 





toe 2 «; 



a. 5 



B. p. 

 16.1 



16.2 

 18.0 

 18.0 



3 3 



s a 



OS cd 



a a 



o § «i 



0) S 



S S 2 



B. P. 



12.0 



10.1 



12.1 



Now, based on the data thus obtained, the experi- 

 menters have in effect asserted the following propositions : 



1. That to corn plants, and all other members of the 

 botanic order of grasses, is given the characteristic func- 

 tion of withdrawing from the soil a maximum amount of 

 nitrogenous alim'ent— not, however, for the purpose o 



assimilating it in their tissues in excess, but to be used 

 temporarily in carrying on their general assimilative 

 processes, and then, in a gaseous form, to be expelled 

 as waste matter into the atmosphere. 



2. It is asserted by the experimentalists that the 

 general industrial circumstances of English farming are 

 such as to preclude the profitable growth of corn with- 

 out greater or less aid from nitrogenous manuring of 

 some kind. Now, without seeking to go into any cir- 

 cumstantial disproof of this proposition, we are content 

 to place experiment against experiment, and, as an irre- 

 fragable evidence to the contrary, to rely on the Rev. 

 Mr. Smith's unmanurial but eminently remunerative ex- 

 perience at Lois Weedon ; supported, as it is, both in 

 abstract principle and industrial practice, by the suc- 

 cessful corn husbandry of this country prior to the in- 

 troduction of the rotation system. 



Again, 3. It is asserted by the experimentalists (and 

 the proposition cannot be too earnestly considered) that 

 the root and clover members of field culture arc in their 

 nature twice blessed ; since not only are they means of 

 increasing the provender of the farm for the use of the 

 live stock, but in the processes of their growth they as- 

 similate and garner up in their tissues a large amount of 

 nitrogenous element, which in cattle court manure be- 

 comes a plentiful source from whence the excessive de- 

 mands of the cereal crops may manurially be provided 

 for. 



Viewing these propositions as forming the basis of a 

 mere hypothesis, it would be out of place here to occupy 

 space in examining their foundation in physiological 

 fact ; but when the experimentalists, passing out of the 

 province of scientific speculation, enter on that of the 

 political economy of husbandry, by asserting, 



4. That the use of cattle crops in rotation is es- 

 sential to monetary profit in English tillage farming, 

 we answer, first, by protesting against the results of a 

 series of mere experiments (which, for aught known, 

 may have been affected by circumstances of soil and 

 climate not common to all districts of the kingdom) 

 being exalted into catholic authority ; and having taken 

 this general exception, we shall proceed, secondly, to 

 show not only the great improbability of the proposition, 

 but moreover that the trials relied on disclose facts 

 which not merely invalidate the conclusions derived 

 from them by the experiments, but actually seem to con- 

 firm the doctrines of the opposite side of the controversy. 

 First, then, to prove the improbability of the conclu- 

 sions respecting the financial benefits to the farmer of 

 the much-vaunted expedient of cattle crops alternated 

 with corn, we would, in the way of preliminary illus- 

 tration, relate certain circumstances in actual husbandry 

 obtained from instances occurring in proximity to 

 Rothamsted. 



Now, both from the experimental reports themselves, 

 and more particularly from Caird's statistical work on 

 English agriculture, it appears that the average acreable 

 produce of the county (Herts) in wheat, barley, and 

 oats, is no more than 22 bushels, 32 bushels, and 24 

 bushels respectively ; and the yearly rental only 25s. 

 per acre, tithe included. The prevailing rotation is a 

 five-course of (1) turnips, or frequently a bare fallow, (2) 

 barley, (3) clover, (4) wheat, (6) oats. In point of 

 quality, the Rothamsted soil is part and parcel of that 

 to which these particulars apply. 



Now in the same district lies the property of Law- 

 rence-end, belonging to Mr. Oakley, who, at the time 

 Caird published his volume, farmed 800 of his own 

 acres; of these 140 were in permanent grass, and 660 

 under the plough, on a four-course rotationof(l) turnips, 

 (2) barley, (3) clover, (4) wheat. Originally the condition 

 of the farm must have been lo.w indeed ; for, while at the 

 time Caird visited it, the yield of wheat was 35 bushels, 



