1864. | Agriculture, 311 
salt per acre per annum in addition to the other manures. The paral- 
lel is exact with that exception. The mean produce of 1848, 1849, 
and 1850, the years previous to the application of salt, was 32} or 324 
bushels per acre in each case; showing that the crops of wheat were 
extremely alike. There was, in fact, no difference between them, 
Again, in 1851, 1852, and 1853, the years in which A received 3 ewt. 
of salt per acre per annum and B did not, the produce of wheat per 
acre was almost exactly the same. During the next ten years also the 
produce was again nearly alike. The produce of the sixteen years was 
in each case 374 bushels, showing that in the yield there was no trace 
whatever of the action of the 9 cwt. of common salt. Some persons 
think that, although salt may not increase the quantity of produce, 
yet it improves its quality. What, then, was the weight of the produce 
per bushel? In the first three years the weight was a little higher in 
A than in B; in the second three years, when the salt was applied—the 
difference was again slightly in favour of A, though not so much as it 
was before ; and in the next ten years the weights per bushel were almost 
exactly alike. The total produce of the first three years was 5,988 lbs. 
against 5,976 lbs.—a difference of only a few pounds. In the three 
years when salt was used the produce was, as nearly as possible, the 
same; and in the ten years after salt was applied, the produce was 
7,799 Ibs, against 7,811 lbs.—again a difference of only a few pounds. 
In the total produce of the whole period of sixteen years the difference 
was only 12 lbs.—7,222 Ibs. against 7,234 lbs. Salt is supposed to 
strengthen straw, and to improve its quality. In the first period, 
before salt was applied, there was 57 lbs. and a fraction against 56 Ibs. 
of grain to 100 lbs. of straw; therefore A was in that case rather supe- 
rior to B. In the next period there was 42°6 lbs. against 41-7 lbs., 
there being again a slight difference in favour of A. Practically 
there was no difference in the proportions of corn and straw, taking 
the whole period. 
For mangold-wurzels, of which Mr. Lawes grows annually about 15 
acres, he has been in the habit, which is prevalent, of applying a few 
ewts. of salt with the guano which he uses along with a half-dressing 
of dung. But an experiment last year showed that the crop was 
unaltered where no salt had been applied, and was diminished where 
a double allowance of salt had been added. Of course the experience 
of a single locality will not determine the truth for all England. But 
Rothampstead, in Hertfordshire, is sufficiently inland to make one 
expect that there the full effect of salt as a manure would be seen. 
Though, however, there are undoubted instances where salt has been 
_ applied with advantage as a manure, yet in an island such as ours, 
swept annually by Atlantic storms, it can rarely be the case that the 
common salt of the soil is the body in minimo, whose quantity, accord- 
ing to the accepted theory of manures, rules the crop. 
A recent lecture on Artificial Manures, by Professor Anderson, the 
chemist to the Highland and Agricultural Society, has directed atten- 
tion to the prices charged for Lawson’s so-called phospho-guano, and 
for ordinary superphosphates. The phospho-guano, as sold, is the 
result of treating, with a comparatively small quantity = sulphuric 
Y 
