CROPS. 221 



applied to oats upon a clay soil, increasing the crop in the propor 

 tion of 12 to 5, and this in repeated trials. I regret that I could 

 obtain from him no further and no more exact particulars. There 

 are many instances given, and some from farmers with whom I 

 have the pleasure of an acquaintance, of the very successful appli 

 cation of nitrate of soda to wheat ; yet, in spite of these, it is not 

 very extensively used, and its application is viewed with great 

 distrust. Further, and more exact, and longer-continued experi 

 ments are greatly to be desired.* 



There are three modes of sowing wheat the first, broadcast : 

 the second, by drilling; the third, by dibbling. The last two 

 methods are generally done by machines ; the last not always, 

 however j unless women and children, who drop the grains in the 

 hole made by a dibble of the most simple construction, are to be 

 considered as machines, and the human hand the most perfect of 

 its parts. Drilling and dibbling are methods certainly to be pre 

 ferred, as the seed is more evenly sown, and an opportunity is 

 offered of hoeing and weeding the crop, which is here most 

 carefully done, and undoubtedly to great advantage. When 

 wheat is drilled, likewise, there is an opportunity of cultivating 

 between the rows by implements for that purpose, the advan 

 tages of which are unquestionable. These implements are de 

 nominated horse-hoes, or scufflers. 



In my next Report, I shall give a plate of a horse-hoe much 

 in use ; but I cannot, among the many varieties exhibited, pro 

 nounce it the best. I shall give it as a specimen of the imple- 



* &quot; With regard to nitrate of soda, from which so much was once expected. 

 there are the most undoubted proofs, from numerous quarters, of an enormou- 

 increase of the produce after its use ; there are as undoubted instances of its 

 utter failure. Nor have we any cleAv to the mystery. On the same land, whore 

 it gave me eight bushels one year, it gave barely three in the following ; and hav 

 ing tried it largely, at that time, on different farms, nowhere with success, I have 

 given it up. Still, there is evidently a principle of fertility in it, which will some 

 day be found out ; and some farmers continue to use it ; but in several cases it 

 has produced mildew in wheat and barley, by forcing the crop beyond the strength 

 of the land. By the side of the nitrate, I tried, on several fields, the sulphate of 

 ammonia, extracted from gas-water the first time. It acted precisely as the 

 nitrate of soda, darkening the color of the plant, and strengthening the straw and 

 the ear even more than the nitrate ; but it certainly did not pay. Again, we have 

 the principle, and we must learn to combine it.&quot; P. Pusey, Esq., M. P. 

 19* 



