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XXX. — Experiment on the Application of Nitrate of Soda as a 

 Manure. — By the Right Hon. The Earl of Zetland. 



To the Secretary of the English Agricultural Society. 

 Sir, 



I HAD the honour to receive your letter of the 2nd instant, inti- 

 mating a wish that I would send a statement of the details of the 

 experiment tried by me in the application of nitrate of soda for 

 manure, for the purpose of insertion in the Journal of the English 

 Agricultural Society. 



I have had so little experience in the use of that manure that I 

 do not think the details which I can give would be worth insert- 

 ing in that Journal ; nevertheless, what I do know is quite at your 

 service. In May last I sent a ton of the nitrate of soda from 

 London to Upleatham, in the North Riding of Yorkshire. I 

 directed that it should be tried on wheat, turnips, and meadow- 

 land, at the rate of 1^ cwt. per acre. I am now of opinion that 

 it was too late for wheat ; for, although it appeared to make the 

 straw grow stronger, I do not believe there was any material in- 

 crease in the quantity of grain over the adjoining land which was 

 not manured. For turnips, I consider it entirely failed, and was 

 of no use whatever ; but, on the meadow-land, its effects were 

 astonishing. In the course of nine or ten days after the applica- 

 tion it could be seen to an inch where it had been sown ; and, on 

 mowing the field, 90 square yards were measured, and the grass 

 carted off as soon as cut, and weighed ; the weight was 30 stone, 

 of 14 lbs. to the stone. The same quantity was then measured 

 off that part of the field immediately adjoining, which had not 

 been dressed with the nitrate of soda; that part was cut and 

 weighed in the same manner, and the weight of it was only 14 

 sione. I must add that the land was of precisely the same quality 

 in the same field, and the whole field had been equally well 

 manured in the winter with good farm-yard manure. 



I afterwards had it tried on several meadow-fields after the hay 

 had been carried, and the effect Avas very soon visible by a great 

 increase in the growth of the after-grass ; and both cattle and 

 sheep seem to eat it greedily. 



Whether the effects are of longer duration than one year, of 

 course I am unable to state. 



I have the honour to be. Sir, 



Your obedient servant, 



Zetland. 



Afike, near Richmond, Yorkshire^ 

 Nove?nber 29th, 1S39. 



