TRANSACTIOXS OF THE SECTIONS. 



197 



emigrants were takeii, and the colonial community to which they were added; and 

 that it would confer an addition upon the public revenue of the colony, through 

 indirect contributions, of some £4-5,000 within a period of ten years. It was also 

 pointed out that the colony of Natal was eminently adapted for such a course of 

 action, by the abundance of available laud in open pasture ready for the plough, by 

 the mildness of its climate, by the cheapness of the necessaries of life, by the 

 large range of natural productions, stretching through sugar, coflee, tobacco, cotton, 

 silk, horses, cattle, sheep, wool, root-crops, and grain-crops of nearly every variety, 

 and by the abundance and cheapness of native labour. 



Statistical JVotes on some Experiments in Agriculture. By Frederick Puedy, 

 F.S.S., Principal of the Statistical Department, Poor-Law Board. 



The memoranda of the plan and results, which Mr. Lawes has circulated among his 

 friends, give the issue of upwards of 1400 separate experiments, not experiments 

 that can be quickly performed like the ordinary ones of the laboratory, but experi- 

 ments each requiring one revolution of the seasons for its answer*. It is beyond 

 my scope to attempt a description of these researches in any detail ; at the same 

 time I hope to convey some idea of the extreme importance of Mr. Lawes's achieve- 

 ments, by selecting a few salient examples from each process of cultivation employed 

 by that gentleman. 



Permanent-Mcadoio Land. — The area experimented on was about 6j acres, 

 divided into 20 plots — with few exceptions, duly noted, the same description of 

 manure has been applied year after year to the same plot. The meadow land 

 chosen " has been probably laid down in grass for some centuries." 



The yield of the plots unnoticed here range at various distances between the 

 extreme results selected for comparison below. 



Experiments on Permanent Meadow-Land. 



Note. — -The numbers in brackets after the plots, here and hereafter, refer to the enu- 

 meration of the original paper. 



Chemistry has taught agriculturalists that their husbandry will not draw from 

 the soil or the atmosphere what is neither in the soil nor in the atmosphere. The 

 corollarv of this lesson seem to have determined the operations on Plot Xo. 18. 

 The ground Avas annually dressed with a mixture, per acre, equal to the respective 

 quantities of potass, soda, lime, magnesia, phosphoric acid, silica, and nitrogen con- 

 tained in a ton of hay. The average yield of hay for the four years 18G5-G8, was 

 32^ cwt., or 8 cwt. in excess of the two unmanured plots represented in the Table 

 above. In 18G8 the yield was 21^ cwt. or (if cwt. above the produce of the un- 

 manured plots in the same year — _iust one-third of the chemicals was returned to the 

 cultivator by the surplus hay in this year's trial. 



Barley. — The area under experiment was about 4j- acres, divide! into 28 plots. 

 The grain sown on the same land year after year, and, for the most part, the same 

 manures used continuously on each plot. 



* ' Memoranda of the Plan and Eesults of the Field Experiments conducted on the 

 Farm of John Bennet Lawes, Esq., at Kothampstead, Herts,' May 1860. 



