538 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



However, it may be said in this case that 

 the greater weight of the grain, and the 

 greater quantity of corn, from a smaller 

 amount of straw, indicate some accidental 

 superiority of soil ; and it proves that in some 

 particular instances good crops may be ob- 

 tained from a very small amount of seed. The 

 third series of experiments tend to show the 

 advantage of hoeing wheat, though that ad- 



vantage in the first two cases is limiled to a 

 small increase of straw, the measure and 

 weight of grain being just the same under 

 either treatment. The dibbled, both hoed 

 and unlioed, yielded 29 bushels 7 gallons ; 

 the drilled, both hoed and unhoed, 43 bush- 

 els 2 gallons ; but the hoed from 1 to 2 trusses 

 more. In another field the comparison stood 

 thus : 



Wheat drilled and hoed 



drilled but not hoed. 



Here the advantage of hoeing is very de- 

 cisive ; and I shall have occasion to revert to 

 this subject by-and-by. In tiie meantime I 

 must observe that though more than 46 bush- 

 els of corn can be obtained, as in this in- 

 etance, from little more than 3 pecks of seed, 

 it does not warrant the general adoption of 

 the practice, for in most cases it would be at- 

 tended by disappointment ; failure is the 

 rule, success is the exception. With respect 

 to the value of manures applied as a top- 

 dressing to meadow land, I continue to find 

 sulphate of ammonia, when applied at the 

 proper season, to be uniformly beneficial and 

 remunerative, though sometimes only to a 

 small extent. In two instances, where | 

 cwt. was employed, the increased value of 

 the hay after deducting the price of the ma- 

 nure, was Is. 4d. and 7s. ; in other trials, 

 where the quantity was 1 cwt., the profits 

 per acre were 3s., 12s. 2d., 14s. Id. The 

 only instance of loss was where it was sown 

 merely for the sake of the experiment, too 



late and after the dry weather had set in. 

 But even that may not be ultimately a total 

 loss ; for I found upon comparing two por- 

 tions of land, neither of which had been ma- 

 nured this year, but one had last year re- 

 ceived a dressing of the sulphate of ammonia, 

 and the other none — the value of the hay on 

 the former was 3s. lOd. per acre more than 

 on the latter. A similar experiment, when 

 the manure had been guano, gave an increase 

 in one trial of 3s. 9d. ; in another none at all. 

 The application of the same manure this year 

 was rather more successful than before ; for 

 it failed once, but succeeded twice. The 

 loss was 4s. 4d. ; the gains were 3s. 3d. and 

 7s. 2d. The quantity in the last instance was 

 2 cwts. ; in the others 1^ cwts. But on poor 

 soils the benefit of applying artificial manures 

 to the trefoils was more remarkable. The 

 manures were selected in this case with a 

 special view to the constitution of the plant, 

 and these were the results : 



Yellow trefoil, without manure 



1 J cwts. guauo and 1 j cwts. gypsum 



1| cwts. guano and 1^ gyp. 40 bus. ashes . 



Red clover without manure 



2 cwts. superpho.sphate of lime 



Do. and 40 bushels of ashes 



IJ cwts. clover manure 



Do. and 40 bushels of a.shes 



Weiiiht of hay. 



CW19. 







6 

 11 



6 

 12 





 13 



9 



Lhs. 



106 

 74 

 48 

 74 

 39 

 53 

 37 

 58 



Cost per acre. 



14 

 19 

 110 



1 16 



Here it will be observed that the ashes in 

 each instance greatly augmented the fertil- 

 izing power of the manin-es to which they 

 were added ; and yet, when used alone, they 

 did not repay their cost by Is. 8d. ; but it 

 follows not from this that separately they 

 have less efficacy in proportion than they 

 have in combination with other substances. 

 General experience shows that they are very 

 favorable to the growth of trefoil ; and in this 

 case there is no second trial to check and cor- 

 rect the first. I now pass on to other ex- 

 periments, embracing both the effects of cul- 

 (1018) 



tivation and the action of manure, expen- 

 meuts which have been continued for four 

 years on the growth of wheat upon the same 

 ground with the same artificial manures and 

 no other. Two things, however, must be 

 premised: 1. That in the course of the pre- 

 ceding summer, the ground being overrun 

 with the Convolvuhis arrensis, iu order at 

 once to get rid of the weed and to restore to 

 the soil the inorganic food which has thus 

 been abstracted from it, the roots were col- 

 lected and burned ; care, however, being 

 taken to burn on each plot of ground only 



