MANURES FOR BARLEY. 229 



4th. "We sow our barley usually in May, and harvest it in July, 

 The barley, therefore, has to take up its food rapidly. If we ex- 1 

 pect a good growth, we must provide a good supply of food, and 

 have it in the proper condition for the roots to reach it and absorb 

 it; in other words, the land must be not only rich, but it must be 

 so well worked that the roots can spread out easily and rapidly in 

 search of food and water. In this country, you will find ten good 

 wheat-growers to one good barley grower. 



"That is so," said the Deacon; "but tell us about Mr. Lawes' 

 experiments. I have more confidence in them than in your spec- 

 ulations. And first of all what kind of land was the barley grown 

 on?" 



" It is," said I, "rather heavy land as heavy as what the men 

 call ' clay-spots,' on my farm." 



"And on those clay-spots," said the Deacon, "you either get 

 very good barley, or a crop not worth harvesting." 



" You have hit it exactly, Deacon," said I. " The best barley I 

 have this year (1878) is on these clay-spots. And the reason is, 

 that we gave. them an extra plowing last fall with a three-horso 

 plow. That extra plowing has probably given me an extra 30 

 bushels of barley per acre. The barley on some of the lighter por- 

 tions of the field will not yield over 25 bushels per acre. On the 

 clay-spots, it looks now (June 13) as though there would be over 

 50 bushels per acre. It is all headed out handsomely on the clay- 

 spots, and has a strong, dark, luxuriant appearance, while on the 

 sand, the crop is later and has a yellow, sickly look." 



" You ought," said the Doctor, " to have top-dressed these poor, 

 sandy parts of the field with, a little superphosphate and nitrate 

 of soda." 



" It would have paid wonderfully well," said I, " or, perhaps, 

 more correctly speaking, the loss would have been considerably 

 less. We have recently been advised by a distinguished writer, to 

 apply manure to our best land, and let the poor land take care of 

 itself. But where the poor land is i.i the same field with the good, 

 we are obliged to plow, harrow, cultivate, sow, and harvest the 

 poor spots, and the question is, whether we shall make them capa- 

 ble of producing a good crop by the application of manure, or bo 

 at all the labor and expense of putting in and harvesting a crop 

 of chicken-feed and weeds. Artificial manures give us a grand 

 chance to make our crops more uniform." 



" You are certainly right there," said the Doctor, "but let us 

 examine the Rothamsted experiments on barley." 



You will find the results in the following tables. The manures 



