SECRETARY'S REPORT. 283 



rain before and after the application, the nature of the crop and 

 the permeability of the soil. During a drought, on newly-mown 

 fields, it produces no effect till after the first heavy rain. On 

 bare ground, just before sowing, it seems to have an immediate 

 effect, equal to a like weight of good barn-yard manure, and if 

 applied at the rate of from 82 to 48 tons per acre, on clay soils, 

 the effects are apparent two or three years. As it contains less 

 nitrogen, weight for weight, than farm-yard manure, or 35 lbs. 

 to 59, of the latter, it seems to follow that 49 lbs. of nitrogen 

 in night-soil will have as much effect as 100 lbs. in farm-yard 

 manure. 



The most judicious mode of application is to mix it with 

 from three to five times its bulk of water, and apply in spring, 

 to young plants. 



Applied in this way to beets, it produced 26 tons and 11 cwt. 

 of clean roots per acre from 63 lbs. of nitrogen, while common 

 manure, containing 448 lbs. of nitrogen, gave only 24 tons, 17 

 cwt. Each pound of nitrogen in the first case gave 935 lbs. 

 of beets, and in the second, only 124 lbs. 



Making allowance for the fact, that the virtue of the night- 

 soil was wholly taken up by the crop in the one case, while it 

 is generally admitted that only half of that contained in ordi- 

 nary manure is used by the crop of beets, the proportion would 

 stand as 935 to 248. The previous crop having been lucerne 

 ploughed in, it is probable that tlie amount of vegetable matter 

 in the soil, with the help of a wet season, aided the action of 

 the night-soil more than that of the barn-manure. 



Night-soil does not act on other crops to such a degree as on 

 beets. Experiments made, give the crops on which the action 

 is greatest, in the following order : — 



1. Beets, turnips, Swedes, carrots, and cabbages. 



2. Rape and hemp. 



3. Green fodder crops, Italian rye-grass, Indian corn, and 

 sorghum. 



4. Cereals. 



5. Potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, green leguminous crops. 



6. Pulse crops. 



For all these, night-soil diluted with water, is far superior to 

 barn-yard manure and to pure night-soil, however applied. The 

 great superiority of the tubular system over the old way of the 



