No. I.} OP WHEAT, BARLEY, AND OATS. 6 



7°. Of common salt it will be safer to apply not more than four to six bushels 

 an acre ; though, where time and circumstances permit, comparative trials might 

 also be made on the efficacy of salt when applied in different proportions, to the 

 same land on which the other experiments are made. 



As to the time when these several dressings ought to be applied, some varia- 

 tion may be made according to the state of the young crop. They need not, in 

 general, be used before the lOth of April, and they should rarely be later 

 than the middle of May. 



It will be desirable that in the detail of every set of experiments, the kind and 

 quality of the soil (and subsoil) should be stated — with its di-aina^e and expo- 

 sure — and the kind of grass or clover which had been sown upon it. 



11.. OP WHEAT, BARLEY, AND OATS. 



It is known that saltpetre and nitrate of soda produce highly beneficial effects 

 on all these varieties of grain. There remains much to be done, however, be- 

 fore the principle of their operation, or the circumstances on which their most 

 useful application depends, can be clearly understood. Their relative effects on 

 the same kind of grain must be made the subject of more frequent, more precise, 

 and more carefully conducted experiments — and these effects must be compared 

 with those of other fertilizing substances, in order that we may arrive ultimate- 

 ly at some comparative estimate of the practical value of each, in increasing the 

 growth and produce of those crops which are the staples of animal food. 



A.— Of meat. 



It is confidently stated by some, as a general rule, that saltpetre is more ad- 

 vantageous than nitrate of soda, when applied to wheat. On the other hand, it 

 is beyond question that the apphcation of nitrate of soda to wheat has been 

 found productive of remarkable benefit. 



Is saltpetre especially adapted for wheat of all varieties, on all soils, and under 

 every variety of management, and is nitrate of soda, in like manner, especially 

 fitted for barley and oats 1 



These are questions to which the experiments hitherto made do not enable us 

 to give a reply. New data must be obtained before we can have the means of 

 reasoning usefully in regard to any of them. I would propose, therefore, — 



1°. That where two varieties of wheat are sown on the same field, or on dif- 

 ferent fields of precisely the same kind of land and in the same condition, that 

 two half acres of each variety should be measured off, and that one half acre of 

 each should be dressed with saltpetre, and the other with nitrate of soda, at the 

 rate of 1 cwt. per acre. If three varieties could be so treated, the experiment 

 would be the more valuable. 



It would thus be determined how far the effect of each of these nitrates was 

 dependent upon the variety of wheat sown — and what was the relative action of 

 each nitrate upon any of the varieties. 



2°. That when the same varieties of wheat are sown upon two or more dif- 

 ferent soils — in different parts of a farm — that one portion of the wheat on every 

 different soil should be dressed with nitrate of soda, and another with nitrate ot 

 potash (saltpetre). By this experiment, it would be shown how far the effect 

 of these substances is dependent on the nature of the soil, and how far the action 

 of the one, compared with that of the other, is modified by diversity of soil. 



In these different experiments, the management is presumed to be the same. 

 If the experiments be repeated by several persons in different parts of the coun- 

 try, the effects of difference of management will, in a great measure, be shown 

 in the diversity of the results. 



3°. With the view of ascertaining the comparative effect of the sulphate of 

 soda on this crop, I would suggest Siat in each case above specified, an equal 

 area should be set aside to be dressed with this salt, in the proportion of 1 cwt. 

 per acre. 



Of each variety of wheat, therefore, and on each variety of soil, four patches 



