On the Nitra te of Soda. 



133 



Results of I'liperiments with Nitrate of Soda, and on Drilling 

 for TJ heat. By John Raymond Barker, Esq. 



To the President. 



Dear Pusey, 



As President of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, I forAvard 

 to you tlie result of some experiments I have tried with nitrate of soda, 

 and also the results of Avide and narrow drilling for wheat. The land 

 upon which the experiments were tried is a light stone-brash, a poor 

 thin soil. In October, 1839, I drilled half the field six inches between 

 the rows, with 9 pecks of white Hereford wheat per acre. I drilled the 

 other half nine inches apart, with*only 5 pecks of seed per acre. The 

 nine-inch drilled wheat appeared the strongest and best all through the 

 winter. In February, 1840, I measured in the middle of the field four 

 separate quarters of an acre ; two of these quarters drilled 6 inches 

 apart, and two 9 inches apart ; I then, on a moist foggy morning, sowed 

 42 lbs. of nitrate of soda on a quarter of an acre of the 6 inch drilled 

 wheat, and the same on a quarter of an acre of the 9 inch drilled ; 

 during the dry weather which followed and prevailed here all the 

 summer, it was extraordinary to see how green and thriving the wheat 

 continued that had received the nitrate of soda, while the whole of the 

 remainder of the field showed evident symptoms how much it felt the 

 dry weather : I took these small quantities in order that I might be 

 inore exact and sooner be enabled to give the results to the public, as 

 had I taken the whole field I could not have been so exact, or been ena- 

 bled to thrash out the corn so soon, but I have no doubt from the 

 appearances that all the wheat with which I used saltpetre or nitrate of 

 soda will yield the same results ; not so with the barley, on which the 

 saltpetre failed. 



The results of the quantity of grain in measure and weight, with the 

 weight of the straw also, is as follows : — 



No. 



Quantity 

 of Land. 



Seed. 



Drilled 



Produce. 



Straw weight. 





distance. 



Bushels. 



Weight. 





Pecks. Inches. 

 5 i 9 



p. i cwt. lbs. 

 2 ! -1 39 



8 3 

 6 0 

 G 1 



96 

 22 



32 



C%v-t. lbs. 



5 ' With 



Nitrate 



O 56 I of Soda 



i 3 



I 



3 



Without 

 Nitrate. 



The iceigJit of the grain appears light ; but, it must be remembered, 

 the wheat was carried from the field to the barn and thrashed imme- 

 diately, and new wheat never weighs well. 



The narrow drilled produced, as you will perceive, a little more than 



