476 Mr. Chatterley on Saline Manures containing Nitrogen. 
made to determine the propriety of this mode of dressing the 
land, the result was a thin and bad crop, arising apparently 
from its having received a check during its early growth, and 
much of the seed having been killed as soon as germination 
took place; this may perhaps be accounted for by referring 
to the withering effect upon the leaves, observed in some of 
the other experiments, which may be supposed to be much 
more powerful upon the tender radicle and plumule in the 
earliest stages of development, while they are provided in 
the cotyledons of the seed with a mild and bland nourish- 
ment suitable for these tender organs, and before they are 
prepared for procuring or assimilating the stronger aliments 
fitted only for more mature plants. 
Attention has been particularly directed to sulphate of 
ammonia on account of its low price as compared with other 
nitrogenous manures, a point upon which the extensive 
practical application of any manure must chiefly depend. 
The price paid was seventeen shillings per cwt. ; itis prepared 
at the Gasworks in Brick Lane by a patent process for pu- 
rifying coal-gas by meansof dilute sulphuric acid, and is very 
free from impurity. 
A specimen of manure sold as Daubeny’s sulphate of am- 
monia at 12s. the cwt. did not give any traces of ammonia 
when mixed with caustic lime, but consists almost entirely of 
sulphate of lime, and is worth no more to the farmer than 
gypsum which may be obtained at 2/. a ton. 
This manure is said to be prepared according to the di- 
rections of Dr. Daubeny of Oxford, by pouring the ammo- 
niacal liquor of the gasworks upon finely-powdered gypsum: 
even if it were so, the per centage of sulphate of ammonia to 
be thus obtained, cannot make its value as compared with 
pure sulphate of ammonia as 12 to 17; and its name, ** Dau- 
beny’s Sulphate of Ammonia,” unqualified as it is by any 
explanation of its composition, is liable to lead the agricul- 
turist unable to detect its nature, into serious loss and 
error. 
I may perhaps be permitted to remark, that the nitrogen 
of coal is the store accumulated by the vegetation of past 
ages, before man converted it to his use, but now that this 
inexhaustible source of a material so necessary to increase 
the quantity of food to be obtained from the present race of 
plants is opened, it is proper to examine the most advan- 
tageous mode of employing it, that so great a boon be neither 
neglected nor wasted: it should therefore seem to be the 
duty of all who have it in their power, to confirm or refute 
the accuracy of such experiments as the above, and if, as I 
