33 1 



Plots 1st, Snd, 3ril, and Gtli, were top dressed in March ; 

 plots 4th and r)th in April. Mr. Knox first remarks, about the 

 composition of No. 4, that the quantity of muriate of ammo- 

 nia was calculated (according to Liebig) on the supposition 

 that the decomposition of the ammonia furnished all the 

 nitrogen required for the plant, and was sufficient to give a 

 heavy crop with the addition of the ammonia derived from 

 the rain. The quantity of bones was sufficient to furnish all 

 the phosphates required, at the rate of from three to four 

 tons to an acre, and were, as Liebig suggested, first dis- 

 solved in sulphuric acid, and having been mixed with a 

 large quantity of water, were sprinkled evenly over the land. 

 At first, plots 1st and 2nd, those manured with ashes and 

 stable manure, appeared much the most luxuriant, and even 

 up to the time of cutting, that top dressed with manure 

 seemed far a finer and heavier crop, and had a richer colour. 

 When ripe, the plots were mowed and saved quite separately, 

 and that there might be no mistake, pegs had been driven 

 down deep into the ground at the time of laying on the top 

 dressing. When the hay was quite dry and saved, the pro- 

 duce of each plot was weighed separately, and I was then 

 surprised to find, that though the stable manure was to all 

 appearance the best, yet the plot manured with the mixed 

 salts and dissolved bones much surpassed it ; also that on 

 which the ashes had been used. This, in case of plot 1st, I 

 consider to be due to the potash (which the ashes contain), 

 enabling the plant to take up more silica from the soil ; and 

 in the case of plot 4th, to the potash and phosjjhates, by 

 which greater firmness of stalk was acquired by the plant, 

 and it was prevented from losing weight in drying, as the 

 one that was top dressed with the stable manure did. I was 

 prevented at that time from determining this analytically, 

 which might have been done, simply by weighing the ashes 

 resulting from burning equal weights of hay. I here give 

 the weights of hay, the exact quantity of land, which was re- 



