MANURE FOE BAELEY. 243 



they would pay $1.00 a bushel for barley weighing 47 Ibs. to the 

 bushel ; 90 cents for barley weighing 46 Ibs ; 80 cents for barley 

 weighing 45 Ibs., and 70 cents for barley weighing 44 Ibs. and at 

 these figures they much preferred the heaviest barley. 



It is certainly well worth our while, if we raise barley at all, to 

 see if we cannot manage not only to raise larger crops per acre, but 

 to produce barley of better quality. And these wonderful experi- 

 ments of Mr. Lawes are well worth careful examination and study. 



The Squire put on his spectacles and looked at the tables of 

 figures. 



"Like everybody else," said he, "you pick out the big figures, 

 and to hear you talk, one would think you scientific gentlemen 

 never have any poor crops, and yet I see that in 18Gof there are 

 three different crops of only 121, 121, and 13 bushels per acre." 



" Those," said I, " are the three plots which have grown barley 

 every year without any manure, and you have selected the worst 

 year of the whole twenty." 



"Perhaps so," said the Squire, "but we have got to take the 

 bad with the good, and I have often heard you say that a 

 good farmer who has his land rich and clean makes more 

 money in an unfavorable than in a favorable season. Now, this 

 year 1860, seems to have been an unfavorable one, and yet your 

 pet manure, superphosphate, only gives an increase of 148 Ibs. of 

 barley or three bushels and 4 Ibs. Yet this plot has had a tre- 

 mendous dressing of 8 cwt. of superphosphate yearly since 1852. 

 I always told you you lost money in buying superphosphate. " 



" That depends on what you do with it. I use it for turnips, and 

 tomatoes, cabbages, lettuce, melons, cucumbers, etc., and would 

 not like to be without it; but I have never recommended any one 

 to use it on wheat, barley, oats, Indian corn, or potatoes, except as 

 an experiment. What I have recommended you to get for barley 

 is, nitrate of soda, and superphosphate, or Peruvian guano. And 

 you will see that even in this decidedly unfavorable season, the 

 plot 2a.a., dressed with superphosphate and 275 Ibs. of nitrate of 

 soda, produced 2,338 Ibs. of barley, or 48| bushels per acre. This 

 is an increase over the unmanured plots of 33 bushels per acre, 

 and an increase of 1,872 Ibs. of straw. And the plot dressed with 

 superphosphate and 200 Ibs. of salts of ammonia, gave equally as 

 good results." 



And this, mark you, is the year which the Squire selected as the 

 one most likely to show that artificial manures did not pay. 



" I never knew a man except you," said the Squire," who wanted 

 unfavorable seasons." 



