1022.] Notes on Manures for November. 753 



minimum. There is high authority for the dictum that high 

 farming is no remedy for low prices. It was Lawes himself in 

 1879 (a time when as at present farmers were faced with a crisis 

 and when land was going down to grass, labour was being reduced 

 and the standard of farming was falling) who impressed upon 

 farmers the fact that large dressings of manures do not neces- 

 sarily bring in high profits. To enforce this point he quoted the 

 results of some of the experiments on the growth of wheat on 

 Broadbalk field, Eothamsted. Four plots were set out and 

 dressed with artificials, the dressings being as follows : — 





Average per acre 





per annum. 





Dressed corn. 



Strain. 



Wheat every year, 27 years, 1852-78. 



Bushels. 



Cwt. 



Complex mineral manure, alone 



15| 



131 



,, ., ,. and 200 lb. ammonium salts 



... 244 ... 



22| 



„ „ '4001b. „ ,, 



33^ 



33| 



„ „ „ „ 6001b. ,. „ 



36| 



40f 



Barley every year, 6 years, 1852-57. 







Superphosphate alone ... ... 



31| 



16£ 



„ and 200 lb. ammonium salts 



45i 



28| 



„ „ 4001b. 



... 49| 



34 



The complex mineral manure consisted of 3J cwt. superphos- 

 phate, 200 lb. sulphate of potash, 100 lb. sulphate of soda and 

 100 lb. sulphate of magnesia per acre, or just over 7 cwt. in all. 

 The results showed that the 2 cwt. sulphate of ammonia in 

 addition to other artificials gave an increased yield of 8| bushels 

 per acre, while 4 cwt. sulphate of ammonia gave an increased 

 yield of 17 J bushels, but 6 cwt. gave an increase of only 21 

 bushels. 



From these figures it is evident that an increase in the total 

 artificials from 11 cwt. to 13 cwt. per acre increased the yield of 

 grain only by 3J bushels per acre, and was therefore clearly un- 

 profitable. Lawes concludes: " Assuming that the application 

 of 400 lb. of ammonia-salts was the limit of high farming with 

 wheat at 6s. per bushel I cannot see how it could be maintained 

 that a further 200 lb., yielding little more than a third as much 

 increase as when used in more moderate quantity, should be 

 employed because the price of wheat was reduced to 5s. per bushel. 

 On the contrary, the conclusion I should draw from the results 

 of these experiments is that the application of the 600 lb. of 

 ammonia-salts could only be profitable if the price of wheat were 

 to rise instead of fall." Everyone would agree with this. 



If any farmer were giving his wheat crop 11 cwt. of artificials 

 per acre, including 4 cwt. of sulphate of ammonia, we could 



F 



