206 HOW TO GROW GOOD CORN. 



the uninjured ones push out new buds — stolons — and 

 all grow the better, because the roller has aided in 

 firmly fixing the plants in the ground. 



There have been those who would tell us that ma- 

 nure can be best used to wheat by subjecting the seed 

 to various steeps ; but we need hardly stop to question 

 the folly of the assertions which from time to time 

 re-appear, both at home and abroad, upon this point. 



Thus far the subject of manures has been treated 

 as for wheat as a shifting crop ; but this crop has 

 been grown year after year on the same soil, and, in 

 some cases, without an apparent diminution in quan- 

 tity or quality. One instance that came under our 

 own observation was in Gloucestershire, where a cot- 

 tager had grown wheat on the same plot of ground 

 for thirteen years, and, for aught I know, it may still 

 be continued. Hence the subsoil was Lias shale ; but 

 it was well drained and cultivated as a garden, the 

 manure employed being the contents of the garden- 

 house. 



In cases of this kind, an annual application of 

 manure is absolutely necessary ; and we are happy to 

 find that different manures and their effects have 

 been experimented upon and duly noted, for the same 

 plots, during a period of no less than twenty years, 

 and that by such careful and reliable inquirers as 

 J. B. Lawes, Esq., F.R.S., and Dr. Gilbert, E.R.S.; 

 full details of the results of whose labours upon this 

 subject will be found in Vol. XXV. of the Journal 

 of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, from 

 which we have extracted some of the following ge- 

 neral conclusions as to average yield and weight of 

 corn for the lengthened periods quoted : — 



