THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



509 



Let us, then, next inquire a little into the competency 

 of these testa to perform the important duty thus 

 assigned to them. 



B. p. 

 Exp. I. Annual acreabie produce for G years .... 27 3 



Ditto ditto for first period of 3 years 29 3 

 Ditto ditto for second ditto 25 3 



Annual acreabie decrease at the end of 6 years 4 



Exp. 2. Annual acreabie produce for 6 years 28 0| 



Ditto ditto for first 3 years 2» 2 



Ditto (iitto for secoad ditto 27 3 



Annual acreablo decrease at the end of 6 years 3 



Exp, 3. Annual acreabie produce for 6 years .... 43 Of 



Ditto 

 Ditto 



ditto 

 ditto 



for first 3 years 41 3 



for second ditto 44 2 



Annual acreabie increase at the end of 6 years 2 3 



Now, although it is essential to the validity of any 

 assumed standard of comparison that it should in its 

 elements be congruous, and in its secular character de- 

 terminate, here are presented a series of standards, 

 exhibiting in one instance a rapidly falling succession of 

 annual results, in another a succession of results nearly 

 constant, and in a third a succession of yearly products 

 showing a lively ascending progress of fertility ; whilst 

 also it is no less true that at the time these and the other 

 experiments were terminated, neither the descending 

 nor ascending progression had reached a minimum or 

 maximum limit. Nor is this all, for of this gauge series 

 it is also true that, not presenting the mean produce of 

 Experiment 1 as a gauge by itself, or of No. 2 by itself, 

 the two are fused together thus — 



B. p. 

 Exp. 1. Average acreabie produce for six years.. .. 27 3 

 Exp.2. „ „ „ .... 28 0| 



Mean 23 



And this compound sum of 28 bush, is actually given 

 as a gauge mean by which the other experiments are to 

 be tested, although, as has been shown, one element of 

 it belongs to an unmanured trial, falling secularly at 

 the rate of 4 bush, per acre per annum in six years, and 

 the other to an experiment in which the benefit of clay 

 and ashes as a fertilizing compost exhibits itself in a 

 manner so unfluctuatingas to produce an all but entirely 

 sustained produce of upwards of 28 bush. 



Leaving now the gauge series, the next observation 

 to be made is that, as respects the other three 

 series, the same incongruity of classification, and falla- 

 cious construction of averages, manifestly prevails. To 

 follow the several steps of the demonstration by which 

 we shall now verify this assertion, the reader will do 

 well to confine his attention, at first, to the Abstract at 

 the end of Table V., where is shown that between the 

 mean of the unmanured gauge series No. I, and the 

 raeftu of tUewixe^.J series N-). 2 th«re is a difference 



of yearly acreabie produce, in favour of the 

 minerals, of > 3 2% 



In (lie 3rd, or minor nitrogenous series, the 

 success is ostensibly much greater — namely . . 14 2 



And in the 4th, or major nitrogenous series, 

 greater still, being no less than. 19 0^ 



And hence, looked at superficially, one might be very 

 ready to assign to the manures in each series a produc- 

 tive value proportionate to these several increased 

 amounts ; and this, in fact, is the conclusion inculcated 

 by the experimenters themselves, by the following pro- 

 cess of reasoning : 



If the chemical composition of the manures in series 

 2 and 3 be compared together, it will be seen that each 

 contains equal quantities of mineral matter, but in the 

 3rd only will any nitrogen be found ; and hence it is in- 

 ferred that the superiority of No. 3 above No. 2 is due 

 to the available nitrogen so placed within the soil. 



B. p. 



lu No. 2, the increased yield was only 3 2| 



Iq No. 3, the increased yield was 14 2 



Superiority ostensibly due to the available \ -iq qx 

 nitrogen of No. 3 J ^ 



But, alas! when the experimental results of either of 

 these iwo series are examined in detail, it is seen that, 

 except as respects one instance, in all of them, nitro- 

 genous as well as purely mineral, the produce obtained 

 had undergone, and was at the inchoate termination of 

 the experiments actually undergoing, a decreasing in- 

 fluence, exhibiting itself in every grade of diminished 

 yield, from 2 bush, per annum per acre (as seen in Exp. 

 No. 10) to 5 bush, per acre, as seen in the nitrogenous 

 experiment No. 8, and the mineral trial No. 5. Tested 

 by the fallacious gauge afforded by Exp. 1, these two 

 series do indeed present a plausible aspect of enhanced 

 fertility ; but since it is true that both the gauge and 

 the two sets of associated instances to which it is ap- 

 plied are equally guilty of running out the land, as 

 evinced by the secularly decreasing yield, what choice 

 is there but to scout all the three, as spoliators of the 

 soil in greater or less degree ? 



The last member of the series — namely, No. 4 — may 

 now be examined ; and here anomalies yet more extra- 

 ordinary present themselves. 



According to the abstract subjoined to Table V., the 

 increased average produce of the nine experiments em- 

 braced in this section, above that of the so-called gauge 

 mean, is 19 bush. 0^ peck. And these nine trials arg 

 composed of — 



1 with nitrate of soda. 



4 with rapecakc alone, and with alkalies and phosphate of 



lime. 

 4 with sulphate and muriate of Btnmonia, alone and with 

 — alkalies and superphosphate. 

 9 



Now, of the foregoing mean of 19 bush. 0| peck of 

 alleged annual increase, it has to be remarked that it 

 roroprises — 



