On Agricultural Chemistry. 



233 



those seasons. The lowest weight of the bushel and the greatest 

 amount of straw were obtained in that season which had the 

 greatest number of rainy days and the lowest temperature ; the 

 least amount of straw with the driest season, and the finest 

 quality of grain in the hottest summer. On comparing the pro- 

 porticm of grain to straw and the weight per bushel of the corn 

 obtained from the un manured space, with the average results of 

 the various experiments, it will be seen hov/ much they agree one 

 with another, and this is the more remarkable as manures of the 

 most varied kinds were employed, some of which doubled the 

 natural production of the soil. 



It is highly important that experiments should be tried in dif- 

 ferent parts of England, having reference to the effect of climate 

 upon produce. A rain gauge and a register thermometer is all 

 the apparatus required. If half an acre of the different crops on 

 a farm were carefully weighed, and the relation of corn to straw, 

 leaf to bulb, and the quality of grain estimated, we should in a 

 few years be put in possession of sufficient data to enable us to 

 speak with certainty upon this subject. It would then be seen 

 that each shower of rain and each change of temperature had an 

 effect upon vegetation, which, when once ascertained, might 

 always be calculated on. The farmer would be able to make an 

 estirnate of the quality and produce of his crops before a grain 

 had been removed from his field. Even with the information 

 obtained by a careful examination of the above table, it is hardly 

 to be doubted that the farmers in Scotland and in the north and 

 west of England can produce turnips of finer quality and at less 

 expense than those who dwell in the middle and south of England, 

 and that the farmer in the south of England can produce the best 

 corn. By the application of capital and skill an artificial climate 

 may, to a certain extent, be obtained. I shall point out some of 

 the means to be employed when speaking on the subject of 

 manures. But where equal means are employed I think a farm 

 upon which there are a certain number of rainy days in the 

 summer and autumn possess advantages in the production of 

 green crops over another farm upon which the average amount of 

 rainy days is less ; and, on the contrary, where the least number 

 of rainy days and the highest temperature exist, corn of the best 

 quality can be produced. The summer of 1846, v.ith a mean 

 temperature of more than three degrees above the average of the 

 climate of England, having produced grain, weighing 63f per 

 bushel, upon any soil from which seven unmanured corn crops 

 had been removed, proves undoubtedly that high quality of grain 

 to a great extent is determined by climate independently of the 

 action of manures. We should, therefore, expect that those 

 countries enjoying a hotter and drier summer than our own would 



