200 



THE SYSTEM OF FARM-YAKD MANURING. 



somewhat more phosphoric acid and nitrogen than the 

 field at Cunnersdorf : consequently, the larger potato 

 crop at Kotitz may have been mainly owing to the 

 greater quantity of these two elements contained in it. 

 Even if the field at Cunnersdorf had been still richer in 

 potash and lime than the Kotitz field, yet after all, 

 under the given conditions, it would have produced a 

 smaller crop of potatoes. 



Oats, 1853. The oat plant derives part of its nutri- 

 ment from the arable surface soil, but sends its roots, 

 when the soil permits, much deeper than the potato ; it 

 possesses, so to speak, a higher power of vegetation than 

 the rye plant, and in the faculty of appropriating nutri- 

 ment resembles weeds. 



1853. OATS. 

 Cunnersdorf, Miiusegast, Kotitz, Oberbobritzsch, Oberschona. 



The point which most strikes us in this table is the 

 great inequality in the produce of two cereal plants 

 grown successively on the same unmanured soil. 



The field at Cunnersdorf, which next to that at Ober- 

 schona had given the lowest crop of rye-corn and straw, 

 yielded in the third year the largest produce of oat-corn 

 and straw. 



The difference in the condition and closeness of the 

 nutritive substances in the lower layers of these fields is 

 undeniable. The field at Cunnersdorf was poorer in 

 the upper layers, but went on increasing downwards 

 in the amount of substances nutritive to the corn plant ; 

 the other fields decreased downwards. 



The returns of the field at Mausegast for the year 

 1853 refer to barley and not to oats : hence they afford no 

 conclusion as to the condition of the deeper layers, from 



