210 TALKS OX MANURES. 



The ninth season (185 1-2), was unusually cold in June and wet 

 in August. It will be seen that the wheat, both in quantity and 

 quality, is the poorest siuce the comuienrement of the experi- 

 ments. The unnianured plot gave less than 14 bushels of drcs.srd 

 grain per acre ; the plot with barn-yard manure, less than 28 

 bushels, and the best yield in the whole series was not quite 29 

 bushels per acre, and only wei;4:hed 55 lbs. per bushel. On the same 

 plot, the year before, with precisely the same manure, the yield 

 was nearly 37 bushels p -r aero, and the weight per bushel, G3J lbs. 

 So much for a favorable and an unfavorable season. 



The tenth season (1852-3), was still more unfavoral)le. The 

 autumn of 1853 was so wtt that it was impossible to work the 

 land and sow the wheat until liic IGtli of March 1853. 



You will 8fc t'.iat tho produce on the unmanurcd plot was less 

 than 6 bushels per acre. With barn yard manure, 19 bushels, and 

 with a heavy dressing of ammonia-salts ami minerals, not quite 26 

 bushels per acre. With a heavy dressing of superphosphate, not 

 quite 9i busiiels per acre, and with a full dressing of mixed 

 mineral manures and siipfrphosphatc, 10 bushels per acre. 



The wcigiit per bushel on the unmanurcd plot was 45 lbs.; with 

 mixed mineral manures, 48^ lbs. ; with ammonia salts alone, 48J 

 lbs.; with barn-yard manure, 51 lbs.; and with ammonia-salts and 

 mixed mineral manures, 52i lbs. 



Farmers are greatly dependent on the season, but the good 

 farmer, who keeps up the fertility of his land stands a better chance 

 of making money (or ot losing less), than the farmer who depends 

 on the unaided products of the soil. The one gets 6 bushels per 

 acre, and 1,413 lbs. of straw of very inferior quality; the 

 other gets 20 to 2(3 bushels per acre, and 5,000 lbs. of straw. And 

 you must recollect that in an unfavorable season we are pretty 

 certain to get high prices. 



Tiie eUvent'i season (1853-4,) gives us much more attractive- 

 looking figures ! We have over 21 busiiels per acre on the plot 

 which has grown eleven crops of wheat in eleven years without 

 any manure. 



With barn-yard manure, over 41 bushels per acre. With am- 

 monia-salts alone (17a), 45J bushels. With ammonia salts and 

 mixed minerals, (16i), over 50 bushels per acre, and 6,635 lbs. of 

 straw. A total produce of nearly Hk tons per acre. 



The twelfth season (1854-5), gives us 17 bushels of wheat per acre 

 on the continuously unnianured plot. Over 34^ bushels on the 

 plot manured with barnyard manure. And I think, for the first 

 time since the commencement of the experiments, this plot pro- 



