Lois Weedon HushandrT/. 33 



some minor detail, it might have been overlooked. But, I am 

 compelled to say, that in every essential point the conditions of 

 the plan have been so utterly disregarded as to vitiate the experi- 

 ment altogether. 



To come at once to the proof. In order to provide a suffi- 

 ciency of available nitrogen to feed the wheat-crop, it is in the 

 rules, it is the leading principle of the plan, it is indispensable, 

 that the land be pulverized and its surface kept open. And yet, 

 what does Mr. Lawes, in the paper before us, own? He owns 

 that his trial -piece was not pulverized, or its surface kept 

 open ; but, on the contrary, that it became foul and crusted over 

 during summer. Notwithstanding this avowal, by a singular 

 process in logic, he would by implication condemn the plan 

 because the want of available nitrogen was one great cause of his 

 failure. 



But, he has a reason for not pulverizing his land. He em- 

 ployed, he says, the same means as those in use at Lois Weedon, 

 but " they were insufficient for the soil at Rothamsted." He 

 does not pretend to say, what no one could say, that his land was 

 incapable of being pulverized, for judicious tillage is able to 

 render " the harsh and most uncivil clay obsequious to the hus- 

 bandman ;" but that, using the same mechanical means, he could 

 not attain the same end. 



Did he use the same means ? I have by me the first edition 

 of the ' Word in Season to the Farmer,' published in 1849 ; and 

 also the ninth edition, published in 1852, containing the direc- 

 tions before published in 1851. Mr. Lawes having entered on 

 his experiment in 1851, we will for his first crop refer only to 

 the edition of 1849 for the rules then laid down for pulverizing 

 the soil. Describing the digging of the intervals for my fifth 

 crop of wheat, I speak, in p. 5, of its being " two spits deep ; 

 and after the pan is a little moved, the staple is turned upon it, 

 and the second spit is gently laid uppermost, in such a form that 

 the frost may be felt right througli tlie whole." " The winter 

 fallow over,T give my spring stirring with the fork, which moves, 

 without damaging, the spreading fibres; and I folloic uptliat with 

 the horse-lioe as often as the surface incrustates, and as loncj as the 

 (jrowimj corn will permit P 



These were the means in operation at Lois Weedon from the 

 very beginning. Did Mr. Lawes, in this turning point of the 

 system, scrupulously carry them out ? 



The winter fallow over, he gave the spring stirring with the 

 fork ; and after that, as long as the growing corn would permit, 

 what followed? Two scratchings with the hand-hoe, and no 

 horse-hoeing whatever — a very costly method of evading the rule 

 and defeating the plan ; for, for the expense of even one hand- 



VOL. XVIII. D 



