MANURE 



207 



action on the plant, rather than to any fallacy in the theory -which would recommend 

 to practical agriculture the supply by artificial means of the constituents of the ashes 

 of plants as manures. 

 ' The following Table gives our selection of the results of the third season, 1846 : 



TABLE III. Harvest 1846. Selected Results. 



' At this third experimental harvest wo have on the continuously unmanured plot, 

 namely, No. 3, not quite 18 bushels of dressed corn, as the normal produce of the 

 season; and by its side we have on plot 105 comprising one half of the plot 10 

 of the previous years, and so highly manured by ammoniacal salts in 1845, but 

 now unmanured, rather more than 17f bushels. The near approach, again, to 

 identity of result from the two unmanured plots, at once gives confidence in the 

 accuracy of the experiments, and shows us how effectually the preceding crop had, 

 in a practical point of view, reduced the plots, previously so differently circumstanced 

 both as to manure and produce, to something like an uniform standard as regards 

 their grain-producing qualities. We take this opportunity of particularly calling atten- 

 tion to these coincidences in the amount of produce in the two unmanured plots of the 

 different years, because it had been objected against our experiments, as already 

 published, that confirmation was wanting as to the natural yield of soil and season. 



'Plot 2 has, as before, 14 tons of farmyard manure, and the produce is 27^- bushels, 

 or between 9 and 10 bushels more than without manure of any kind. 



1 On plot 10a, which in the previous year gave with ammoniacal salts alone a produce 

 equal to that of the farmyard manure, we have again a similar result : for 2 cwts. of 

 sulphate of ammonia has now given 1850 Ibs. of total corn, instead of 1826 Ibs., which 

 is the produce on plot 2. The straw of the latter is, however, slightly heavier than 

 that by the ammoniacal salt. 



' Again, plot 5a, which was in the previous season unmanured, was now subdivided : 

 on one half of it (namely, 5a') we have the ashes of wheat-straw alone, by which there 

 is an increase of rather more than 1 bushel per acre of dressed corn ; on the other 

 half (5a 2 ) we have, besides the straw-ashes, 2 cwts. of sulphate of ammonia put on 

 as a top-dressing ; 8 cwts. of sulphate of ammonia have, in this case, only increased 

 the produce beyond that of 5a' by 7| bushels of corn and 768 Ibs. of straw, instead of 

 by 9| bushels of corn and 789 Ibs. of straw, which was the increase obtained by the 

 same amount of ammoniacal salt on lOa, as compared with 106. It will be observed, 

 however, that in the former case the ammoniacal salts were top-dressed, but in the 

 latter they were drilled at the time of sowing the seed ; and it will be remembered that 

 in 1845 the result was bettor cs to corn on plot 9, where the salts were sown earlier 

 than on plot 10, where the top-dressing extended far into the spring. We have had 

 several direct instances of this kind in our experience, and we would give it as a 

 suggestion, in most cases applicable, that manures for wheat, and especially ammo- 

 niacal ones, should be applied before or at the time the seed is sown ; for, although 



