The Lois Weedon Plan of Growinrf Wheat. 593 



infinitely in degree, in physical character and texture, and in 

 chemical qualities, under the influence of similar management 

 and of equal climatic circumstances. We think, therefore, that 

 considerable caution should be exercised in ttie application to 

 various descriptions of land, of plans which peculiarly rely for 

 their success on qualities of soil which are admittedly so variable 

 in the degree of their activity. 



Leaving the question of the field-experiments, let us now turn to 

 a brief consideration of some points of great ])ractical interest and 

 importance, whic:h a careful study of the rehxtions of soil and 

 atinospliere to produce, and of the success at Lois Weedon, can- 

 not fail to suirgrest. 



The main peculiarity of the Lois Weedon system of growing 

 wheat is, that it develops to the utmost (chiefly by mechanical 

 means), and relies exclusively upon, the resources ol the soil and 

 atmosphere, without the aid of manure : that is to say, it is 

 sought, by the means employed, so to increase the depth of 

 staple, and the area of distribution of the underground feeders of 

 the crop, and so to increase the surface annually exposed to 

 climatic influences, as to cause, not only a greater annual libera- 

 tion of mineral constituents from the otherwise locked-up stores 

 of them in the soil itself, but also a greater accumulation and 

 elal)oration, throughout its more porous and root-searching area, 

 of the normally atmospheric food of plants, and particularly of 

 nitrogen, in an available and assimilable form. 



The principle of relying upon the stores of the soil alone, 

 •without return, for the mineral food of successive crops, is directly 

 opposed to that laid down for the guidance of the agriculturist 

 in the last number of this Journal by Baron Liebig. He 

 says :— 



" Tl)(;ir liciivy cmjis will j/frliaps not be rciulcroil licavior by the restonition 

 of all the mineral constituents, but they will at all events be reiulered fcr- 

 mannit. We shall never have a rational a^^riculture until, by such experi- 

 ments, the law of the fertility of the soil, in reference to time, has been brought 

 home to the mimls of at^riculturists." — Juitrrnil, p. 313. 



'I'iie conclusion of the Kev. Mr. Smith, looking from the 

 practical as well as the scientific side of the question, goes rather 

 in a (lilTi'rent direction, lie says to his readers: — 



" The a.ssertion is, that, on wlicat land, — that is, on the great majority of 

 clays and heavy loams, — no manure is required for wheat on this plan, since 

 its food in abundance is there already." — Lois Wcalvn Ilushaudnj, pp. 102-3. 



And again (il)i(l. lO.T-'l), referring to chemists, he s.ays to his 

 readers : — 



