92 On Barilla, as a Manure. 



quantity that the acreable expense should be under that 

 which the other portions cost him ; one side of the 

 field being heavily manured with soap ashes, and the 

 other side with dung. This was acceded to, and six- 

 teen hundred weight of Barilla was sown and harrow- 

 ed in with the wheat, on about 3| acres, in the middle 

 of the field, on the 15th of November ; but I must re- 

 mark, that from what I saw, this is by no means a fair 

 trial : for, besides the lateness of sowing, the wheat in 

 the other parts of the field being at that time well out 

 of the ground, the middle of the field is more wet and 

 full of springs than any other part, so that in places 

 there were sheets of ice some days ago, where the 

 springs had bubbled up. If, under these disadvanta- 

 ges, it succeed, it will be irrefragable proof of its pow- 

 ers, and should it even fail, it will be no solid ground 

 of condemnation ; for, on such land, labour and ex- 

 pense will never make an adequate return, without that 

 indispensible part of good husbandry — under draining. 

 There is one very observable circumstance that shows 

 it has been in operation through the winter, whether 

 beneficially or not will hereafter appear ; the colour of 

 the ground is so changed as to point out, even at a dis- 

 tance, where the Barilla was sown. 



The beneficial effects of soap ashes have beyond all 

 doubt been experienced in many instances, and in 

 others equally well authenticated, they have entirely 

 failed. Some of these failures may have arisen from 

 their application to a soil that did not want that pecu- 

 liar quality that they impart, or by which they operate ; 

 other failures may have arisen from a deficiency of that 

 quality in the ashes themselves : for, by an analysis of 



