NITRATE OF SODA. 



NUISANCES. 



his occupation : "The soil of the field selected 

 is a thin, gravelly loam, -"dth a substratum of 

 sandstone, and was a rye-grass ley, fed with 

 sheep and beasts until the last week in May, 

 1839, when it was ploughed up, and afterwards 

 twice stirred and harrowed, and manured with 

 120 bushels of lime per acre, previously to its 

 being sown with the wheat " golden drop" in the 

 autumn. In the last week of April, this year, 

 I applied 1 cwt. of nitrate of soda per acre over 

 the whole field (with the exception of two lands 

 in the middle of the field) ; in the second week 

 in May, I applied to two lands adjoining those 

 upon which none had been sown an additional 



1 cwt. per acre. Previously to the application 

 of the nitrate, the plants had a very sickly ap- 

 pearance, getting yellow in patches, and look- 

 ing, as we call it here, "speary /" but in a very 

 few days subsequent, its appearance was much 

 altered, it having (with the exception of the 

 two lands on which none had been sown, and 

 which remained in a very sickly state) changed 

 from a faint yellow to a luxuriant green ; the 

 two lands upon which the 2 cwt. per acre were 

 sown were much darker in appearance than 

 the other, and easily distinguishable from the 

 remainder at a very considerable distance. 



" At harvest I measured off exactly 8 rods 

 of each, and had it reaped (leaving a stubble 

 about 16 inches high), and carted and thrashed 

 separately; the result was as under: 8 rods 

 without soda produced 1 bushel, 3 galls. 1 pint, 

 or 27 bushels, 6 galls. 4 pints per acre ; weight, 

 61 Ibs. per bushel ; straw 89 Ibs., or 49 trusses, 

 16 Ibs. per acre: 8 rods with 1 cwt. of soda 

 per acre, 2 bushels, 1 gall., or 42 bushels, 4 

 galls, per acre ; weight, 60f Ibs. per bushel ; 

 straw, 155 Ibs., or 86 trusses, 4 Ibs. per acre : 

 8 rods with 2 cwt. of soda per acre, 2 bushels 



2 galls. 7 pints, or 47 bushels, 1 gall. 4 pints 

 per acre; weight, 60$ Ibs. per bushel; straw, 

 156 Ibs., or 86 trusses, 24 Ibs. per acre. 



"On another piece of land, soil very thin 

 and gravelly, sown with Talavera wheat in the 

 autumn, I applied 1 cwt. per acre in the first 

 week in May, and the result was equally satis- 

 factory, the produce good, and weighed 64 Ibs. 

 per bushel. 



" In an adjoining field of precisely the same 

 description of soil, but which had been in hops 

 for 11 years previously, and amply manured 

 every year, I sowed on two rods at the end of 

 one of the lands nitrate equal to 1$ cwt. per 

 acre, which had a very prejudicial effect; the 

 part with nitrate of soda being much mildewed 

 and totally unfit for bread, while the straw on 

 the remainder of the field was very bright and 

 clean, and the grain full and handsome. I also 

 used nitrate of soda on a meadow, 1 cwt. per 

 acre, applied the last week in April ; produce 

 very trifling. 



"As far as my experience goes, and from 

 the effect of nitrate of soda on my neighbours' 

 lands, I am of opinion that it is a very valua- 

 ble manure for their light soils, exhausted by 

 repeated croppings, particularly in districts 

 where the arable lands have been repeatedly 

 manured with lime; but I have great doubts 

 whether it would answer for wheat on newly 

 broken up or other land in a high state of cul- 

 tivation and full of manure. In my experi- 

 850 



ment on the old hop ground, although the straw 

 was much longer, with a blade broad and 

 flaggy, the yield was miserably deficient, both 

 in quantity and quality, compared with the rest 

 of the field. 



" In respect to its effect on the second crop, 

 I can only observe, that a very thin, wornout 

 field of 18 acres, with wheat in 1839, on which 



1 cwt. per acre was used (one land of which 

 had a double quantity), was sown this year 

 half with oats and half with seeds, that both 

 oats and seeds were fully equal to any I ever 

 grew on that field ; and that the land where the 



2 cwt. per acre was sown produced fully as 

 many plants, with longer straw and more grains, 

 and was, as far as I could judge from appear- 

 ances (I did not keep it separate), much supe- 

 rior to the other." 



NITRIFICATION. See EREMACAUSIS. 



NODI. In botany, the knots or swelled ar- 

 ticulations of stems; the place where one joint 

 is articulated with another. 



NONE-SO-PRETTY. One of the names of 

 the London-pride Saxifrage. See SAXIFRAGE. 



NONESUCH, or BLACK MEDICK. See MB- 



DICK. 



NOONINGS. A term provincially used to 

 signify working during dinner-hours. 



NORFOLK PLOUGH. See PLOUGHS. 



NORTHERN LIGHTS, or AURORA 

 BOREALIS. See LIGHTS, NORTHERN. 



NOSE-BAND. That part of the head-stall 

 of a bridle which comes over a horse's nose. It 

 is sometimes termed maserole. 



NUCLEUS (Lat). Literally, any thing 

 round which matter has accumulated, or to 

 which it is affixed. In botany, it is used in 

 various significations : 1. The central, fleshy, 

 pulpy mass of an ovule. 2. That part of a 

 seed contained within the testa, and consisting 

 of either the embryo and albumen or of the 

 embryo only. 3. In lichens, the disk of the 

 shield, which contains the sporules and their 

 cases. 4. In the language of the older bota- 

 nists, what is now termed by gardeners a clove; 

 that is, the secondary bulb of a bulbous plant. 



NUISANCES, in English law, are of two 

 kinds: public or common, which annoy the 

 king's subjects in general; and private, which 

 are defined " any thing done to the hurt or an- 

 noyance of the lands, tenements, or heredita- 

 ments of another." A nuisance may be defined 

 to be any act done which renders the lives of 

 the neighbours less comfortable than they were 

 before. The remedies allowed by the law are 

 in some cases summary, as when a gate is 

 erected across a public highway, or cattle 

 trespass on the land ; and in which cases the 

 passenger or owner of the land is justified in 

 removing the nuisance : or in other cases, the 

 general legal remedies are, indictment or pre- 

 sentment, for public nuisances ; or by an action 

 on the case for damages, for private nuisances. 



Indictable Nuisances. Of the number of 

 public nuisances which are punishable by 

 indictment are setting spring-guns and man- 

 traps, which, by the 7 & 8 G. 4, c. 18, is declared 

 to be a misdemeanor ; but the act allows such 

 to be set "from sunset to sunrise in dwelling- 

 houses for the protection thereof." Other in- 

 dictable nuisances are for erecting a privy or 



