APPENDIX. 



No. I. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR EXPERIMENTS»IN PRACTICAL AGRICULTURE 

 DURING THE ENSUING SPRING AND SUMMER. 



One of the most important objects which chemistry is at present desirous of 

 attaining for the improvement of practical agriculture, is the discovery and ap- 

 plication of specific or special manures. 



We know that certain substances, such as fold-yard manure, are capable of 

 fertilizing to a considerable extent almost any land, and of causing it to yield 

 a better return of almost any crop. But we know also that manures or fertili- 

 zers of nearly every kind are more efficacious on one soil than on another, and 

 that some answer better also for one species of crop than for another. The 

 case of gypsum will serve to illustrate both these positions. 



The effects of gypsum in the United States, in Prussia, and other parts of 

 Germany, and in some districts of England, arc said to be absolutely astonish- 

 ing ; while in many other parts of our Island, of Germany, and even of the 

 United States, the benefit derived from it has not repaid the trouble and expense 

 incurred in applying it. Gypsum, therefore, is espedal.li/ adapted for use in cer- 

 tain soils only. 



Again, the remarkable effects of gypsum have been observed most distinctly 

 on clover* and certain kinds of grass. The same benefits have not followed, 

 to any thing like an equal extent, from its use on barley, oats, wheat, or other 

 kind of grain. Therefore, while specially adapted to certain soils, it is also 

 specially adapted to certain crops. It is a kind of specific manure for clover 

 and some of the grasses. 



Now, neither of these subjects which it is so important to investigate, — 

 neither that of the manures which are especially fitted for each soil, nor of those 

 which are specially fitted for each crop,— can be determined either from theory 

 or from experiments devised and executed in the laboratory of a chemist. The 

 aid of the practical falrmer, of many practical farmers, must be called in. Nu- 

 merous experiments, or trials, must be made in various localities, and by differ- 

 ent individualsjf— all, however, according to the same rigorous and ticcurate 

 method, — in oi'der that, from th^omparison of many results, something like a 

 general principle may be deduced. 



It is partly with a view to determine the mode of action of certain fertilizers, 

 and partly in the hope of obtaining some "additional light on the subject of 

 manures specifically adapted to particular crops, that I venture to suggest to you 

 the propriety of making one or more of the following sets of experiments, 

 during the spring and summer of the present year. I could have much enlarged 



* In regard to its use in Germany, Lampadius says,—" It may with certainty, be stated, 

 that by the use of gypsum the produce of clover and the consequent amount of Jive stock 

 have been increased at least one- third."— DiK Lehre von den Mineralischen Dunomit* 

 rsLN, p. 34.  



