180 THE YEAR-BOOK OF AGRICULTURE. 



means of their organic contents, but by reason of the inorganic substances which they 

 involve." 



Such is a brief outline of some of the views of one who holds a high position among men 

 of science ; and though in some particulars they may seem to be at variance with practice in 

 this country, there is much in them worthy the attention of intelligent cultivators. It is 

 remarkable how different branches of science help in advancing the question, and facts arise 

 in support of the philosopher's theories. By a recent inquiry into the amount and nature 

 of the rain-fall at the observatory, Paris, it has been proved, that from the 1st of July, 1851, 

 to the end of 1852, the quantity of azote combined therewith was omitting fractions 22 

 kilogrammes per acre, being 12 kilogrammes iu the form of azotic acid, and 10 kilogrammes 

 of ammonia. The quantity of uncombined ammonia in the same time was 13 kilogrammes 

 per acre ; and of uncombined azotic acid, 46 kilogrammes. In the months when azotic acid 

 was most abundant, there was least ammonia; the former always increases with stormy 

 weather. Besides these elements, the quantity of chlorine present was equivalent to 18 kilo- 

 grammes of marine salt, leaving out the insoluble matters held in suspension. 



In all this we seem to get a glimpse of the law of supply and demand in the great vegeta- 

 tive operations of nature ; and we see that those who advocate a more sparing employment 

 of manures are not without good reason for their arguments. In the middle of Russia, corn 

 is grown year after year on the same land, with no other fertilizer than the burnt straw ; 

 and in parts of Spain, wheat and barley succeed each other without any manure at all. And, 

 without going so far for facts, we have them close at hand, in one of our midland coun- 

 ties. A few years ago, the Rev. S. Smith, in the neighborhood of Banbury, England, in- 

 stituted a course of experiments on this very point, and with results which are singularly 

 interesting. He took a field of four acres, having a gravelly soil, with clay, marl, and gravel 

 as the subsoil. It had been hard worked for a hundred years ; but except a thorough plow- 

 ing, no other means were taken to improve it: not a particle of manure was supplied. 

 Wheat was then sown in single grains, three inches apart, and in rows a foot apart, 

 a space of three feet being left quite bare between each three rows, and this was con- 

 tinued in alternate stripes all across the field. The sowing took place at the begining 

 of autumn ; and in November, when the planted rows began to show, all the intervening 

 three-feet spaces were trenched by the spade, and six inches of the subsoil made to change 

 places with the surface. "In the spring," says the reverend agriculturist, " I well hoed and 

 hand-weeded the rows of wheat, and stirred the intervals with a one-horse scarifier three or 

 four times, up to the very period of flowering in June." The crop looked thin and miserable 

 until after April, when it began "to mat and tiller;" it did not turn yellow in May, and the 

 stalk grew so stout and strong as to bear up well against the storms. When harvested, the 

 result was highly gratifying, for the yield amounted to from thirty-six to forty bushels per 

 acre, or rather per half-acre, seeing that as the alternate stripes were left bare, only one- 

 half of the field was really planted. The quantity of seed used per half acre was a little 

 more than a peck. 



Adjoining the field in which these experiments were carried on was another which had four 

 plowings, ten tons of manure, six or seven times as much seed, and yet it gave a quarter less 

 to the acre. This might be looked on as an accident, were it not that Mr. Smith has repeated 

 his experiment year after year, and always with greater success. He believes that if all the 

 conditions be literally fulfilled, the same favorable result may invariably be obtained. No 

 manure whatever is to be used ; and in the second year, the stripe is to be sown which was 

 left bare in the first ; and so on, changing from one to the other, year after year. 



Here arises the question as to cost, and in contrasting the expense of plowing with that 

 of spade-labor, he finds that he takes up only so much of the subsoil as the atmosphere will 

 readily decompose in the year four, five, or six inches, descending gradually to two spits. 

 He employs six men at 2s. a day, and they dig an acre in five days, making an outlay of 60s. 

 for the whole; but as only one-half is to be dug for the year's crop, the time and cost are 

 reduced by one-half, and thus brought down to the cheapest rate of plowing. The cost per 

 acre, in the instance above mentioned, was 3 14s. ; the return from the four quarters and 

 two bushels of wheat and the straw, 11 14s., leaving a profit of 8. It should be under- 



