480 On the Growth of Barley hy different 3Ianurcs, ^-c. 



was only 15 bushels, and the weight per bushel was under 



50 lbs. In 1857 we had, without manure, oOg bushels, with a 

 weight of 52 J lbs, per busliel ; in 1854, o4t bushels, with 53ilbs. 

 weight per bushel ; in 1855 nearly 35 bushels, of 52A-lbs. weight 

 each, and in 1852 and 1853 from 26 to 27 bushels, with 52^ and 



51 lbs, weight per bushel respectively. Again, in 1857 and 

 1855, the seasons favourable to corn-yielding, we had 50 to 51 

 per cent, of corn in total produce ; and in the other years there 

 was only from 45 to 47 per cent. The proportion of corn was 

 the least in 1854, tlie year of heaviest produce, and in 1856 the 

 one of lightest produce, and also of greatest inferiority in every 

 other respect. The proportion of corn dressed out as offal was 

 also more than twice as great in 1856, and the comparative 

 inferior season 1853, as in either of the favourable seasons 1857, 

 1855, or 1854. 



A farther inspection of Table VIII. will show, that the same 

 general relation of the seasons to one another as regards the 

 relative quantity and quality of the produce they yielded is 

 traceable under the very various conditions of manuring, as with 

 the unmanured crop. It is true that with heavy manuring, the 

 Avorse proportionally, is the effect of adverse season. But the 

 general result still remains, that the seasons keep their position 

 in relation to one another almost unchanged, whatever the con- 

 dition of manuring, even though the actual amouzit of produce 

 with manure, as is frequently the case, is nearly double that 

 without it. In every year (though in 1857 less than in the rest) 

 the crops most heavily manured were much laid, and more or 

 less damaged, and hence the much hest proportion of corn in total 

 ■produce with these manures, even in the last year 1857, than where 

 the crop was unmanured, or only mineral manures were em- 

 ployed. 



From the pervading influence of season, by which the produce 

 may be double as much one year as another, even with one and 

 the same set of conditions supplied by the farmer, and by which, 

 when unfavourable, the crops most highly manured suffer most, 

 it results that the amount of produce obtained for a given 

 outlay in manure may be only half as much in some seasons as 

 in otliers. And, as will be more fully illustrated further on, the 

 higher the condition of manuring, if beyond a somewhat even 

 narrow limit, the less will be the return of produce for a given 

 quantity of manure. This brings us to a consideration of the 

 efiects of the individual manures employed in the experiments, 

 leaving the reader to study for himself more in detail the varia- 

 tions in result from season to season, which have been above 

 broadly indicated. 



Dispensing then with any further detailed consideration of the 



