580 



0)1 a Variety of Italian Rye- Grass. 



Nos. 14 to 18. Light soils, various subsoils: none less than three, and 

 most of them four crops in six months. 



No. 19. Clay upon gravel; no drainage, very wet, no manure, no 

 urine, very little produce. 



Nos. 20 to 30. Loam upon clay. Three, four, five, six crops have been 

 obtained from these soils ; the better drained have been most successful. 

 The produce from No. 30 is well worth close attention ; for while 7 /. 9*. 8c?. 

 net profit per acre has been obtained from No. 5, with IBcwt. of guano 

 to the acre, a much larger quantity has been produced in Yorkshire by a 

 small quantity of guano reduced to liquid; 18 tons of hay, or 66 tons of 

 grass, per acre, being the amount of produce. 



Nos. 31 and 32 are London clays, without drainage, with bad crops. 

 Upon this soil, moderately underdrained,my experiments were commenced 

 and have been carried on. I have never failed to produce every year, from 

 a portion of grass not kept for seed, from seven to ten crops. I have 

 known five produced in one summer without a single atom or drop of 

 manure. I have found the plant sickly and weak where my subsoil was 

 wet, healthy and vigorous where it was dry. I have been convinced for 

 some time it luxuriates in a dry subsoil rather than not retentive, that it 

 will grow rapidly in the strongest clays if not poisoned with stagnant 

 water, that it grows fast in any light soil well irrigated with liquid ma- 

 nure. I have grown it in sand from the sea-shore, moistened with liquid 

 manure. The dressings I should place in the following order: — Urine 

 decomposed in a close tank, one-third urine, water or dung-water two- 

 thirds, guano dissolved 2 cwt. or 3cwt. in 3300 gallons of water for an 

 acre, during the months of March and April; if the surface of the land 

 be wet the guano may be used solid, as the cart injures the plant in wet 

 weather, and then I should advocate a larger quantity. In June, July, 

 and August, I think nitrate of soda, 2 cwt. dissolved in 3300 gallons of 

 water to the acre, or powdered only, will be found an excellent dressing. 



As the sun loses its power I would again adopt the warmer 

 manure — urine or guano. I do not place guano as an equivalent 

 to urine ; I place it as a substitute when urine has not been saved 

 in sufficient quantity. It may be had in large quantities upon 

 every farm : by taking as a preliminary step the construction of 

 tanks, and draining the stables, cattle-sheds^ piggeries, men's 

 urinals, privies and water-closets of dwellings into tliem^ before 

 the land is ploughed to sow the seed^ a larger quantity is collected 

 than is usually calculated. I think no man has, in the first in- 

 stance, made tanks enough to contain the urine made on his farm 

 during the winter months to be applied during the summer. 



Knowing something of the value of urine, and the profit to be 

 derived from it, I am the more anxious to induce others to try it, 

 and will therefore take this opportunity of saying something about 

 the mode I have adopted to collect it and the expense of the 

 tanks to retain it, which may be useful to those who have not yet 

 set about so important an operation in agricultural pursuits. 



My land is clay, 250 feet deep ; in this soil only have I had 



