188 TALKS ON MANURES. 



This season was considered unfavorable for wheat. The con- 

 tinuously unmanured plot produced 14J bushels, and the plot 

 receiving 14 tons of barn yard manure, 25f bushels per acre nearly. 



300 Ibs. of ammonia-salts alone on plot 10a, gave 19 bushels 

 per acre, while the same quantity of ammonia, with superphos- 

 phate in addition, gave, on plot Qb, 25 bushels per acre. 



The addition to the above manures of 300 Ibs. of potash, 200 Ibs. 

 soda, and 100 Ibs. sulphate of magnesia, on plot 10, gave pre- 

 cisely the same yield per acre as the ammonia and the superphos- 

 phate alone. The potash, soda, and magnesia, therefore, did no good. 



400 Ibs. of ammonia-salts, with superphosphate, potash, etc., gave* 

 on plot 17&, nearly 29 bushels per acre, or 3 bushels more than the 

 plot which has now received 70 tons of barn-yard manure in five 

 successive years. 



" I see that, on plot 0," said the Deacon, "one ton of superphos- 

 phate was used per acre, and it gave only half a bushel per acre 

 more than 350 Ibs. on 9a." 



" This proves," said I, " that an excessive dose of superphos- 

 phate will do no harm. I am not sure that 100 Ibs. of a good 

 superphosphate drilled in, with the seed, would not have done as 

 much good as a ton per acre." 



"You say," remarked the Deacon, " that the season was unfa- 

 vorable for wheat. And yet the no-manure plot produced nearly 

 15 bushels of wheat per acre." 



" That is all true," said I, " and yet the season was undoubtedly 

 an unfavorable one. This is shown not only in the less yield, but 

 in the inferior quality of the grain. The ' dressed corn ' on the no- 

 manure plot this year only weighed 57 Ibs. per bushel, while last 

 year it weighed 61 Ibs. per bushel." 



"By the way," said the Doctor, "what do Messrs. Lawcs and 

 Gilbert mean by ' dressed corn ' ? " 



" By ' corn,' " said I, " they mean wheat ; and by ' dressed corn ' 

 they mean wheat that has been run through a fanning-mill until 

 all the light and shrunken grain is blown or sieved out. In other 

 words, * dressed corn ' is wheat carefully cleaned for market. The 

 English farmers take more pains in cleaning their grain than we 

 do. And this ' dressed corn' was as clean as a good fanning-mill 

 could make it. You will observe that there was more ' offal corn' 

 this year than last. This also indicates an unfavorable season." 



"It would have been very interesting:," said the Doctor, "if 

 Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert had analyzed the wheat produced by the 

 different manures, so that we might have known something in re- 



