Mr. La WES' Experiments. 23 



been laid open to public inspection and criticism. 

 Among other valuable results, one most useful 

 fact has been elicited, that of that mass of dark, 

 strongly-smelling substance called dung, its sole 

 property as a manure depends upon the small 

 quantity of chemical salts and of organic nitro- 

 gen which it contains, the bulky organic matter 

 being only useful in making the land work 

 better, and rendering it more capable of absorb- 

 ing and retaining moisture. Beginning in 1844 

 with wheat, the staff of life in this country, he 

 for eight years concentrated his attention upon 

 it, dividing his experimental field into twenty-two 

 plots, upon two of which no manure has ever 

 been applied, and upon the other twenty a care- 

 fully considered variety of manures has been 

 continuously used. In 1852 he commenced a 

 similar series of experiments with barley, and 

 in 1869 on a smaller area with oats. Experi- 

 ments with leguminous crops had been for a 

 series of years continued, but this species of 

 plant being found, when grown too frequently 

 on the same land, to be peculiarly subject to 

 disease, which no conditions of manuring 



