On the Nitrate of Soda. 



119 



sand, however, Mr. Williams, who manages the farm, informs me that 

 the nitrate appeared to answer with oats and with rye-grass ; he has no 

 record of the trials, but intends to renew them next year. 



Another of our members, Mr. Harris, applied the nitrate to a variety 

 of crops on many different fields of his farm at Hinton, measuring the 

 plots in order to register the result. This farm is chiefly a free loam. 

 He was much disappointed to find that on one lot only was any visible 

 effect whatever produced. This particular spot was pasture, consisting 

 of a thin layer of sandy loam upon heavy clay. Here the action of the 

 nitrate was clearly to be seen in October ; the grass was much fresher 

 and more closely eaten down by the sheep.* 



On my own land the nitrate was tried in two places on wheat. As I 

 wished this to be done in showery weather, and the spring was very 

 dry, its application was delayed until the second week of June. On 

 some stone-brash land, sown late with spring wheat, it produced no 

 visible effect. This may, however, have arisen from the red gum which 

 attacked the wheat a few days afterwards. But in the other case the 

 result was successful. This was on two wheat-fields of 20 acres, the 

 soil of which (the Oxford clay) is as strong and unmixed a clay as can 

 be found. It has always been ploughed very shallow : as low as the 

 plough has gone, about 4 inches, it has the quality of mould, but if left 

 unploughed for a few years it soon loses that character and returns to 

 its former state, that of a mere clay. These particular fields were in a 

 fair state of cultivation, and had been dunged for the wheat; but the 

 rain had been unceasing from July until February; much of the seed had 

 rotted in the ground, the plant was consequently extremely thin in April, 

 and was choked with what appeared to be the weed called black-grass, 

 which, however, was carefully hoed out. In consequence of the con- 

 stant drought which now followed, the nitrate was not applied, as I have 

 mentioned, until the second w^ek in June, when it was sown by hand, 

 between showers, having been previously mixed with half its bulk of 

 dry sand, that it might spread more evenly. In the middle of one 

 field four ridges were left undressed, and of the other field three. The 

 dark-green, which the nitrate produces, showed itself within four days, 



* Account of Mr. Harris's trials of the niti-ate : — 



Sowed some cubic nitre in eight different fields, a square chain in each field, after 

 the rate of 1 cwt. per acre. — 



1st. On some greensward for mowing — the soil a strong loamy sand — no visible 



difference either in quantity or quality. 

 2nd. On a feeding ground — soil, strong loamy clay — no difference to be seen. 

 3rd. On a feeding ground — soil, loamy sand with a clay subsoil. — Effects : It 



altered the colour of the grass very much, and the sheep and cattle have kept 



it fed down very close up to the present time. 

 4th. On some spring wheat — soil, very poor light sand — no difference. 

 5th. On some low grass — soil, very shallow stone-brash — no difference. 

 6th. On some barley — soil, good loamy sand — no diff'erence. 



7th. On some o^ts — soil, loose spongy black sand, with a very bright grit in it — no 

 difference. 



8th. On some Italian rye-grass — soil, stone-brash — no difference. 



The weather on the day it was applied was misty, and a little rain falling at dif- 

 ferent times throughout the day ; it came on heavy in the evening, and a good deal 

 fell during the night, and it rained more or less every day till the 19th of the same 

 month (May). — John Harris, Hinton, Berkshire, Nov. 16, 1840. 



