58 EXPERIMENTS UPCN MIXED CROPS. [Appendix, 



overseer. They are, I believe, the first syslemntic series of observations of the 

 Kind yet published. They are valuable, therefore, as the first steps in the line 

 oi prolonged observations upon the same land made during successive seasons, 

 by which prolonged observations only can we hope to eliminate the effect of 

 our variable seasons, and to arrive at true deductions in regard to the kind and 

 amount of effect which this or that manure is fitted to produce. 



I do hope that Mr. Gardiner, who is capable of observing so well, and of 

 experimenting so accurately, will not lose the opportunity which the present 

 year will afford him of continuing these important observations: — 



1°. Top-dressings upon hay, Covenlea field (see Appendix, p. 17). On 

 looking over this field at different times, and particularly early last sprijig, the 

 square on which nitrate of soda and bones mixed had been sown was earlier, 

 and of a darker green colour, than any of the rest of the field, and when stocked 

 with cattle, the portion top-dressed was more relished, and consequently always 

 eaten quite bare. 



• 2°. Upon part of the pleasure-ground — soil a very stiff blue clay — nitrate of 

 soda was sown at the rate of 160 lbs. per aci-e. After this application white 

 clover came up very thick and strong, and it was cut three different times with 

 the scythe, and each time it came up stronger and thicker than the surrounding 

 grass, whilst, before dressing, it was the weakest, and this season, 1842, it is 

 better, and the portion dressed still easily distinguished. 



3°. The field at Crook's fai-m (see Appendix, p. 17), which had been top- 

 dressed with nitrate of soda applied on each alternate ridge, on being ploughed up 

 from hay stubble was found tougher upon the dressed ridges, the grass roots 

 being stronger and deeper in the soil of those ridges which had been dressed. 



4°. At p. 21 of this Appendix an experiment upon moss-oats is recorded. 

 This was sown down with a mixture of grass and clover seeds, and cut for hay 

 this season, 1842. In examining the hay crop some of the dressings on the oats 

 of last year seemed to have had a good eflfect on the hay crop of this year. Nos. 

 1 and 2 were the worst of any; No. 3 very little better, rather more clover ; No. 

 4 excellent, very thick of red and white clovers and rye-grass, and the hay was 

 of a good quality ; No. 5 a little better than No. 3, but far from being equal to 

 No. 4; No. 6 the best of any, full of red and white clovers and rye-grass, and 

 had three-fourths more hay upon it than all the others, except No. 4 ; No. 7 not 

 better than the undressed ; Nos. 6 and 4 presented a most remarkable appearance 

 compared with the others, and any person seeing them, and not knowing the 

 circumstances of the case, would have said that these two portions only had 

 been cultivated, whilst the rest had been left in a state of nature. After being 

 cut for hay, the aftermath of these two portions still presented the same difference 

 of appearance in the sward, and they continue of a better colour. 



A. F. Gardiner. 



. GENERAL REMARKS ON THE ABOVE EXPERIMENTS OF 1842. 



However valuable the above experiments may be, and however interesting 

 the results to which some of them may appear to lead, it is of importance to 

 bear in mind — 



1°. That they are the results only of a ringle season, and tliat a remarkably 

 dry one. 



2°. That they show the eflfect of the substances employed in certain localities 

 only — the localities differing in the nature of their soil — m their distance from, 

 and height above, the sea — and in the average fall of rain to which they are 

 subject. 



3°. That the results are obtained by trials upfn certain varieties of each crop 

 only, and may not be obtained even on the same spots with other varieties — of 

 turnips for example, of potatoes, oats, wheat, or barley. 



4°. And that other causes, not yet noted, may have existed of sufficient in- 



