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THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



[September 



salt — should not only be first passed through 

 a fine sieve, but they should also be mixed 

 with three to five times their own weight of 

 fine red ashes, dry soil, or sand, before sow- 

 ing them broad-cast by hand, or, what is 

 much more convenient and better, by the 

 broad-cast manure distributor. Chambers' 

 or Reeves' dry manure distributor cannot 

 be too highly recommended for sowing, in 

 a most uniform and expeditious manner, 

 top-dressings of every description/' 



I certainly seem to incline very strongly 

 to the opinion, that the maximum benefit in 

 applying cubicpetre to grass, is obtaina- 

 ble by applying it in solution. Some ex- 

 periments of the late P. Pusey on a small 

 scale decidedly support this view of the 

 case, (Jour. lloy. Ag. Soc , vol. xiv., p. 

 376.) 



The. recently reported field experiments 

 of Professor V oelcker on top-dressing wheat, 

 are valuable on several accounts. They not 

 only were conducted with the careful accu- 

 racy of the chemical philosopher, but they 

 tend to elucidate more than one difficult 

 question to which I have just alluded. In 

 the opening sentence of his essay he ob- 

 serves, (Jour. Roy. Ag. Soc, vol. xx., p. 

 386.) : 



" There is no lack of experiments made 

 with guano, nitrate of soda, soot, shoddy, 

 gas-water, and other nitrogenized substan- 

 ces, which are occasionally used as top- 

 dressings upon wheat. Experience has 

 shown that all these manures may be used, 

 with more or less advantage, for the wheat 

 crop ; and that, generally speaking, they 

 are the more effective the more nitrogen 

 they contain. Thus Peruvian guano or ni- 

 trate of soda, which are both very rich in 

 nitrogen, are justly considered more power- 

 ful wheat manures than soot or shoddy — 

 two materials much poorer in this element. 

 Whilst I consider the relative proportions 

 of nitrogen in different fertilizers, intended 

 to be used for wheat or other cereal crops, 

 to be an important element in estimating 

 the comparative commercial and agricultu- 

 ral value of artificial manures, such as Pe- 

 ruvian guano, nitrate of soda, or sulphate 

 of ammonia, I am of opinion that the form 

 or state of combination in which the nitro- 

 gen is contained in the manure materially 

 effects its efficacy. Any one who has tried 

 side by side nitrate of soda ; Peruvian 



guano, and shoddy, must have felt surprised 

 at the different degree of rapidity with 

 which the effects of these three fertilizers 

 are rendered perceptible in the field. I 

 have noticed more than once that, under 

 favourable circumstances, the effects of ni- 

 trate of soda became visible in the course 

 of three or four days in the darker green 

 colour and more luxuriant appearance of 

 the young wheat, whilst it took eight or 

 ten days in the case of guano to produce a 

 similar effect. On wheat dressed with 

 shoddy no apparent effect was produced 

 even after the lapse of four or six weeks. 

 So slow is the action of the latter that a 

 superficial observer might well doubt the 

 efficacy of shoddy as a wheat manure, for 

 it often produces no visible improvement in 

 the wheat crop, and it is only after thrash- 

 ing out the corn that it can be ascertained 

 that shoddy has had some effect upon the 

 yield of corn. These examples appear to 

 indicate that nitrogen in the shape of nitric 

 acid has a different practical value from 

 that which it possesses in the shape of am- 

 monia, Tmcl that it has again another value 

 J in the form of nitrogenized organic matter. 

 It must be confessed that our knowledge of 

 the comparative efficacy of nitrogen, in its 

 various states of combination, is extremely 

 limited, inasmuch as we scarcely possess 

 any sufficiently accurate and trustworthy 

 comparative field experiments which are 

 calculated to throw light on this subject. 

 As yet the sure foundation on which an ex- 

 plicit opinion as to the relative merits of 

 nitrogen — in the shape, of nitric acid, am- 

 monia, or organic matter — can be given, is 

 altogether wanting. It is true the experi- 

 ence of practical men affords certain useful 

 indications to the scientific observer, but 

 nothing more. In the absence of clear, 

 unmistakable, and sufficiently extensive prac- 

 tical evidence, no definite answer can be 

 given to the question so frequently address- 

 ed to the agricultural chemist, Shall I ap- 

 ply nitrate of soda or guano upon my 

 wheat V 



As Professor Voelcker's top-dressings 

 were applied to the wheat on the 22d of 

 March, 1859, they do not serve to indicate 

 at how late a period in the spring such 

 dressings may be applied. The following 

 table gives the manures applied by him 

 and the produce per acre of both ' seed and 

 straw, the first being given in bushels, the 

 straw in tons and cwts. : 



