454 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. : 
remunerative. For instance, the application of Bradley’s superphos- 
phate, at 34 cents per pound, would amount to $67 87 per acre, while 
the product obtained, rated at $2 26 per bushel, the average price in 
Vermont for that season, would amount to $71 87, returning only $4 
over the cost of the fertilizer alone. 
New Jersey Agricultural College experiments.—Experiments made on 
the experimental farm of the New Jersey Agricultural College, in 1869, 
exhibit the comparative effects of superphosphate of lime, bone-dust, 
and horn-dust, (the latter containing a large percentage of ammoniacal 
elements, and no phosphoric acid,) applied to wheat on a very poor aud 
sour clay loam, which had been recently under-drained, and had received 
a light dressing of gas lime worked through the soil. The bone-dtist 
showed the least effect; while the superphosphate gave the best return, 
the plot on which it was applied showing the greatest evenness of growth, 
and the earliest maturity, and greatest amount of product. The 
grain on all the plots was much damaged by rust. 
English experiments with wheat and barley—The journal of the Royal 
Agricultural Society of England for 1870 contains a report of experi- 
ments made in 1868 and 1869, in drilling wheat in rows of extraordinary 
distances—eighteen inches apart. The experiments of 1868 were made 
on the experimental farm of the Royal Agricultural College. The experi- 
_ Inents of 1869 were instituted by members of the Cirencester Chamber 
of Agriculture, in accordance with a uniform plan mutually agreed upon, 
the agricultural college being auxiliary to the scheme. The trial lay 
between rows drilled at the usual distance apart, (nine inches,) and rows 
eighteen inches apart, or two rows nine inches apart alternating with 
spaces of twenty-seveninches. The following summary exhibits names of 
experimenters, and indicates the condition of the soils experimented on: 
Eari Bathurst: The land in good agricultural condition, “a free work- 
ing” soil, previously under clover and rye grass. The wheat of the 
more widely spaced plots maintained a dark green color and vigorous 
appearance up to harvest time, although the straw was not so clean and 
bright as in the other plots. Contrary to expectation, the yield also fell 
short of that of the plots of ordinary spaces, the widely spaced rows 
averaging about 29 bushels of 60 pounds each per acre, the others about ~ 
32 bushels per acre. Royal Agricultural College: The land was in poor 
condition, and had been in barley the previous summer. The average 
yield of the rows of ordinary spacing was 254 bushels, and, notwithstand- 
ing the saving of seed, the exhibit of the widely spaced rows showed no 
advantage in deviating from the usual distances. W.Smith, of Bibury: 
The land was in excellent condition and of superior productiveness, well 
prepared for wheat, ‘a quick free barley soil,” dark in color. Here, 
there was a marked increase in yield on the widely spaced rows, and the 
heads were exceedingly large. In one plot where two rows, nine inches 
apart, alternated with spaces of twenty-seven inches, the soil being firmly 
pressed with the foot, there was an increase of 84 bushels of grain and 
889 pounds of straw per acre, over the product of the plot of ordinary 
spaces, which yielded 46 bushels of wheat per acre. In another plot, 
where two rows nine inches apart were alternated with spaces of twenty- 
seven inches, which were planted with potatoes, and consequently 
worked to some extent, there was an increase of 74 bushels of grain and 
760 pounds of straw per acre. Thus, the land of best condition and 
highest productiveness gave a very favorable exhibit even on an 
extremely wide spacing of rows. Another point embraced in these 
experimental trials on wheat had reference to methods of cultivation, 
and the results bearing on this point indicated the impropriety of deep 
