NITRATES OF 



POTASH AND SODA. 



more deep, and the increased produce far more 

 than compensated for the expense of the salt- 

 petre. And the same success attended its ap- 

 plication to both red clover and sainfoin on the 

 down lands ; but when I tried saltpetre at the 

 same rate per acre on the lawn of a rich old 

 garden, whose earth was also principally 

 chalk, there was no perceptible effect pro- 

 duced, even in the colour of the grass. This 

 soil abounded in decomposing organic matters, 

 was within reach of the soot and other ammo- 

 niacal matters of the city of Winchester, and, 

 I have little doubt, in minute proportions al- 

 ready contained saltpetre. In fact, almost all 

 the successful experiments with saltpetre have 

 been made on light, poor land. Those of Mr. 

 Lightfoot were on the gravels of Hertfordshire, 

 which have a substratum of chalk;* and yet he 

 produced with 1 cwt. per acre of saltpetre 

 effects more than equal to those produced by 

 folding the land with sheep. And when Mr. 

 Beadel, of Witham, tried it on the Essex clays, 

 it produced hardly any effect, except increas- 

 ing the colour of the wheat ; but when he used 

 the same quantity (1 cwt. per acre) on his light 

 barley land, after Swedish turnips, the increase 

 was 15 bushels of barley and 640 Ibs. of straw 

 per acre ; and on a sandy field of oats, the in- 

 crease from its application was 20 bushels of 

 oats and half a load of straw. The successful 

 experiments of Mr. Kimberley, of Trotsworth, 

 on clover, in which he produced with 1 cwt. 

 per acre of nitre results fully equal to that from 

 25 cubic yards of horse-dung, were upon the 

 sandy lands of Surrey, " of moderate quality." 

 Mr. Everitt, of North Creake, bears out en- 

 tirely these conclusions, when he applauds its 

 use " upon all light, warm soils," but predicts 

 that, "on cold clay land, on an average of sea- 

 sons, it will not more than repay the outlay;" 

 and yet this excellent farmer had no reason to 

 be dissatisfied with his success, having ob- 

 tained from an application of 1 cwt. of salt- 

 petre to "good light land," an increase of 6$ 

 bushels of wheat. The experiments of Mr. R. 

 Harvey, of Harlstone, entirely confirm those 

 of Mr. Everitt ; and in the Report of the Harl- 

 stone Fanners 1 Club, in 1839, it is stated to be 

 "the unanimous opinion of the meeting," that 

 saltpetre was excellent in its effects on heavy 

 clover layers, but that on light land it was 

 highly beneficial to "wheat, clover, and other 

 layers and tares." 



One of my neighbours, too, an excellent 

 farmer of Essex, in 1839, found on the fine, 

 light barley soils of his farm the following re- 

 sults from top-dressing his barley with 1 cwt. 

 per acre of saltpetre, compared with the soil 

 undressed, dressed with night-soil, with sprats, 

 and with farm-yard manure : 



The soil, simple, yielded - - - - 



Dressed with 1 cwt. of saltpetre - 6 6 



Dressed with 50 bushels of sprats per acre, 



ploughed in--. ...7 j 

 Dressed with 20 bushels per acre of digiti* 



fected night-soil (Poillevtn's) - 6 4 



Dressed with 10 loads of farm manure per 



acre ........ 5 5 



I have noticed, also (and the same remark 

 applies to cubic petre), that the effect of salt- 

 petre is the soonest apparent when it is finely 

 powdered, and spread on the land in moist 



weather. The explanation of this must, per- 

 haps, be found in the superior rapidity with 

 which, in such seasons, it mixes with the 

 soil. The cultivator will remember that moist 

 weather is also the best adapted for the appli- 

 cation of other top-dressings, such as gypsum 

 and soot. I have found in the application of 

 crushed bones to grass lands, that they never 

 produce such good effects as when rolled into 

 the soil by a heavy roller, when the ground is 

 softened by wet weather* The Staffordshire 

 farmers will readily attest the same fact. If 

 long-continued dry weather succeeds the appli- 

 cation of the nitrates to clover, the leaves of 

 the grass, wherever the powdered nitrate has 

 fallen, become covered with yellowish spots. 



The application, too, of either nitre or cubic 

 nitre to grass renders it much more attractive 

 to live-stock, who, if turned into a grass field 

 only partially dressed with either, will almost 

 invariably resort to the portion of the land 

 dressed with the nitrates. This is one argu- 

 ment in favour of the conclusion that these 

 salts are in minute proportions absorbed by the 

 crops to which they are applied. We know 

 that this is the case with other saline manures, 

 such as gypsum (sulphate of lime) and com- 

 mon salt ; and every cultivator who has dressed 

 his grass with either salt or gypsum will attest 

 how decidedly his live-stock prefer the grass so 

 treated to every other portion of the same field. 



The effect of cubic petre as a fertilizer for 

 heavy soils, seems to be rather more favoura- 

 ble, as far as my observations extend, than that 

 of saltpetre; and in this I am confirmed by 

 the observations of many of my neighbours. 

 Yet still I am of opinion that, in the great ma- 

 jority of instances, both the cubic petre and 

 the saltpetre will be found much more valua- 

 ble top-dressings for light lands than for the 

 heavier soils ; and I am not much inclined to 

 alter my opinion from the results of many of 

 the carefully observed experiments of the very 

 dry season of 1840; for in such periods it is 

 almost hopeless to expect that any kind of top- 

 dressing will produce results such as may 

 serve to guide us in our future practice. Thus, 

 in seasons such as the last, I have repeatedly 

 witnessed the failure of top-dressings of all 

 kinds ; not only of the salts, such as lime and 

 salt, gypsum and soot, and malt coombs, but 

 even of the richest manure. My neighbours 

 in Essex know very well that if a dry summer 

 follows the application of their sprats (perhaps 

 the most powerful of all animal manures), the 

 application is entirely useless. In my own 

 experiments with nitrate of soda I have inva- 

 riably found the most excellent effects produced 

 by its application to barley at the rate of ! cwt. 

 per acre, sown broadcast, as finely divided as 

 possible, soon after the young plants were be- 

 ginning to show themselves above ground. 

 The soils on which these experiments were 

 made were the barley soils of Hampshire and 

 Essex; and the same increase to the green 

 colour of the crop, and a similar large increase 

 to the produce of seed which my neighbours 

 experienced, resulted from my own "experi- 

 ments. The clover also, which was sown with 

 the barley in most instances, seemed to derive 

 a considerable benefit from the dressing ; and 



81? 



