The Neglect of Chemistry hy Practical Farmer s^^ 417 



than trying any for themselves. Perhaps I may make my mean- 

 ing better understood by recounting one of these experiments 

 of nature that happened on our own farm, and which, in fact, was 

 the immediate cause of my compiling these tables, from the diffi- 

 culty I encountered in collecting the various data together, and 

 then reducing them to a practical form. In the autumn of 1846 

 a field of about 3 acres was manured at the rate of 20 tons of 

 farm-yard manure per acre, and sown with rye for soiling in the 

 following spring. It produced a very heavy crop, but on account 

 of the stalks becoming too hard for the horses, we were obliged 

 to allow half the rye to remain for seed. The part of the field 

 which had been soiled was immediately ploughed, and sown with 

 globe turnips, with a dressing of 3 cwt. of Peruvian guano per 

 acre. The turnips were very fine, and obtained a prize at our 

 local show. After the seed-rye was harvested and the turnips 

 cleared, the whole 3 acres were ploughed, and set with beans in 

 the following February ; and now comes the curious part of the 

 affair ; the beans came up well over the whole field, but we soon 

 began to perceive a difference between those on the seed-rye and 

 turnip-ground, the former looking much more luxuriant than the 

 latter, but we were not prepared for what afterwards took place. 

 The beans that followed the turnips actually stopped all growth 

 when 6 inches high, and of course did not seed, whereas after the 

 seed-rye they grew so luxuriantly as to injure the produce, and 

 this difference extended to the line where we had discontinued 

 cutting the gi'een rye, the more conspicuous as we had stopped in 

 the middle of our land. 



This result certainly astonished me, for it was in direct anta- 

 gonism to all the preconceived notions of farmers, as it is usually 

 thought by them that crops do not draw the ground, nearly to the 

 same extent, when cut green, as when allowed to ripen their seed. 

 Turnips, too, are generally supposed to extract the greater portion 

 of their nourishment from the atmosphere. 



But here we find that beans actually refused to grow after the 

 green rye and turnips, notwithstanding the application of 3 cwt. of 

 guano, and the land being in much better tilth ; while where the 

 rye was allowed to ripen its seed, and no extra manure applied, 

 they grew luxuriantly. 



1 determined to inquire whether the researches of chemists 

 would throw any light upon the question, and the difficulty I had 

 in compiling the following small table, fully accounts to my mind 

 for the fact that chemistry has hitherto received so little assist- 

 ance from practical farmers. 



