aM, RECENT FARM EXPERIMENTS. 455 
cultivation between the wheat rows at an advanced period of the 
season. 
Experiments made with barley on the same fields, and under the same 
conditions that were employed in the trials with wheat, gave results 
decidedly favorable to wide distances between rows and comparatively 
deep interculture. Another experiment on barley by Mr. Iles, of Kemps- 
ford, gave like results, and in this case, although the wide drilled plots 
did not appear to advantage in early summer, at harvest the ears were 
superior, and a larger weight of grain was obtained than on the plots of 
ordinary spaces. Besides the advantage of larger product was that of 
a saving of seed and of greater facility in working the crop. 
Concerted experiments were also made in the application of super- 
phosphate and nitrate of soda on wheat, certain plots receiving only 
one of these fertilizers, others receiving the two combined. The trials 
also included winter top-dressings in contrast with those made in spring. 
As to the application of nitrate of soda alone, results favored a dress- 
ing of 168 pounds per acre, with a probability that heavier dressings 
might be advantageously used. An experiment made by Mr. Ruck, of 
Braydon, on stiff land, sustained the exhibit of former experience, 
namely, that clay land does not respond to applications of nitrate of 
soda so readily as land of lighter character. The results of the various 
experiments are reduced to a money valuation, in which the cost of the 
nitrate of soda is put at 16s. per cwt. of 112 pounds, and the value of 
the wheat at 6s: per bushel, (caleulated in this series at 62 pounds.) 
The increase of grain resulting from each hundred pounds of the fertil- 
izer applied is stated as follows: Earl Bathurst, for an expenditure of 
14s. 34d., obtained 35 bushels of wheat, worth 21s.; or a profit of 6s. 83d. 
on 100 pounds of nitrate of soda. The college farm obtained an increase 
of 4 bushels of wheat, worth 24s.; Mr. Smith, an increase of 44 bushels, 
worth 27s.; Mr. Ruck, an increase of 31 bushels, worth 19s. In these 
cases, respectively, the products of unmanured portions were as follows: 
314 bushels per acre, 244 bushels, 444 bushels, 35 bushels—a significant 
exhibit of the productiveness cf the various soils at the time of experi- 
ment. A satisfactory result was obtained on the highly produetive soil 
of Mr. Smith by adding superphosphate, at the rate of 3 ewt. per acre, 
to the nitrate of soda. Each 100 pounds of superphosphate, used in 
combination at a cost of 54s., are credited with an increase worth 128, 
In the other cases the addition of superphosphate was not remunerative. 
As between spring and winter dressing of these fertilizers, the general 
tenor of the experiments favored the former. 
OORN. 
One hundred and twenty-seven bushels per acre-——Mr. David H. Bronson, 
of Guthrieville, Pennsylvania, in the fall of 1869 and the ensuing spring, 
applied broadcast, on 25 acres of clover and timothy sward, 100 wagon- 
loads of unleached livery stable and barnayard manure, 50 loads of 
which had been hauled a distance of three miles. Besides this dressing, 
the land was liberally limed. On four acres of this field he also applied 
hog pen manure, at the rate of three ox-cart leads per acre, and, after 
plowing and thoroughly pulverizing the soil, marked rows three and a 
half teet apart, with hills at distances of fifteen to eighteen inches. He 
planted May 10th, each hill receiving a handful of hen-manure, plaster 
and ashes, mixed in equal proportions, and two grains of corn. The four 
acres averaged 1274 bushels of shelled corn per acre, the height. of the 
stalks varying from thirteen to sixteen feet, many measuring seven 
inches in circumference. From personal experience and observation, 
