The Neglect of Ckcmutry hj Practical Farmers. 421 



Ing tliemselves on the subject, were they always to leave a small 

 strip of ground unmanured, whenever any special manure was 

 applied to the rest of the field, they would, after some time, be 

 able to estimate roughly the comparative value of the different 

 manures, so far as their farm was concerned ; and then, by some 

 such process as that just detailed, discover, perhaps, the cause of 

 the one manure being so superior to another, and vice-versa. 

 And thus, perchance, the practical farmer may be enabled to 

 devise some theory for the nutrition of plants which may entirely 

 accord with practice, as it must be allowed that this subject is 

 still in a state of doubt and perplexity. At any rate, a collection 

 of such observations and deductions could not but be a valuable 

 contribution towards the advancement of the science. 



Causes 4, 5, (3. — Labour of Calculations, Sfc. — In the tables 

 appended to this essay I have endeavoured, to the best of my 

 ability, with the materials at my command, to rectify all the evils 

 arising from these causes ; — in the first place, by placing side by 

 side the mean results obtained by different celebrated chemists 

 (completing the analysis when deficient in any part by the same 

 means when analysing the same substance), whereby the farmer 

 will be enabled to judge to what extent he may be entitled to 

 rely upon the facts there stated, when applied to practice ; and, 

 secondly, by calculating the results that may be deduced from 

 any analysis, in four different forms, viz. : 



1 . Showing the composition per cent, of both the organic and 

 inorganic portion of the substance analysed, for the purpose of 

 calculating the probable amount of the various constituents, organic 

 and inorganic, in any other specimen of the substance, where the 

 proportion between the organic and inorganic portion differs from 

 that in the one that has been subjected to analysis. 



2. The entire composition per cent, of the whole substance 

 analysed, including the water natural to it, indicating the quantity 

 of any ingredient contained in 100 parts of the whole substance, 

 as the number of grains in 100 grains, lbs. in 100 lbs., or tons in 

 100 tons. 



3 and 4. The amount contained in one ton and one acre, 

 respectively of the crop, &c., in its natural state of dryness, the 

 object in calculating the amount per ton being, that thereby any 

 farmer may at once be enabled to determine the amount per acre 

 in his locality, that being necessarily an ever-varying quantity. 



I think that by means of these tables the labour of calculation, 

 which has hitherto, probably, deterred many farmers from inves- 

 tigating these questions, will now be so lightened that we may 

 hope hereafter to receive valuable assistance from the great 

 body of farmers ; and although we may not be able clearly to 

 define the actual benefits that may accrue to the class by their 



