On the Nitrate of Soda. 



131 



ston Club ; but^ on the other hand, Mr. Pusey's experiments in 

 Berkshire, and Mr. Calvert's on the stiff clay of the Weald of 

 Surrey, furnish evidence of a directly contrary tendency. Similar 

 contradictions are worthy of remark in the letters and experiments 

 which I have transcribed. Lord Zetland, in Yorkshire, and 

 Mr. Dewdney, in Surrey, have experienced great benefit from 

 the application of nitrate of soda to meadoAV and pasture land ; 

 whereas on my grass-land it has been almost a failure; and 

 jNIessrs. Drewitt, it wdll be observed, doubt if either upland or 

 meadow grass will repay the cost of this dressing. My experi- 

 ments on swedes in 1839,, and this year on turnips, have been 

 strikingly successful ; while those made in Yorkshire by Lord 

 Zetland and Mr. Vansittart have altogether failed : how are we 

 to account for such remarkable discrepancies? — are they to be 

 attributed to some peculiar properties in the different soils? — has 

 cHmate any influence in these cases ? — or are these discrepancies 

 to be attributed to variations in the mode of applying this manure, 

 or to accidental cuxumstances, such as the state of the weather at 

 the time of its application ? Science may throw much light on 

 this inquiry ; and all must unite in the hope expressed by our 

 President, ''^that men of science who are competent to do it 

 justice may be disposed to assist us by investigating the operation 

 of manures and the food of plants." 



The singular variations in the results of many actual experi- 

 ments w^ith nitrate . of soda, by parties seeking to advance the 

 cause of agricultural improvement, are calculated to discourage 

 the use of it as a manure. It cannot, however, be doubted that 

 it has a very powerful action on vegetable life ; and by persever- 

 ing in our experiments we may hope, with the aid of science, to 

 understand the laws which govern it, and eventually arrive at 

 practical conclusions of great national importance. 



D. Barclay. 



Eastu'ick Parh^ near Leaf her head, Surrey, 

 Nor. nth, 1840. 



On the Effects of Nitrate of Soda. By John Burgess, Esq. 

 To the Secretary. 



Sir, 



I BEG to communicate to you a few experiments I have made upon my 

 farm, which is stony thin land with a substratmn of chalk. I found 

 the saltpetre, which I only used on my wheat, gave an increase of 

 about five bushel? to the acre, with a considerable increase of straw. 

 But I gave up the saltpetre for the nitrate of soda ; and I believe I am 

 the first individual who has tried it as a n^aniue: and have found it 



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