30 
Field Experiments on Clover-Seeds 
informs me that the field from which this soil was taken had 
been badlv farmed, and that it was in consequence in a poor ao^ri- 
cultural condition. 
It will be noticed that this soil is remarkably poor in available 
potash, and I may add, in almost all the more valuable fertilising: 
constituents found in good soils. The total amount of oxide of 
iron and alumina was not quite 3 per cent., and of lime there 
was not a half per cent. On the other hand it abounds in silica, 
for on examination I found the 92 per cent, of siliceous matter 
which enter into the composition of this soil to consist almost 
entirely of pure fine-grained quartz sand. 
I need hardly say that a soil containing 92 per cent, of sand 
and very little clay, and a still smaller proportion of the more 
valuable soil-constituents has to be regarded as extremely poor. 
Such soils are readily exhausted by cropping, and though they 
will yield fair crops when liberally supplied with manure, they 
are naturally very unproductive. 
The extreme poverty of this soil in available potash at once 
intelligibly explains the benefits which both the clover -seeds 
and the Italian rye-grass derived from the application of mviriate 
of potash ; and ])resents us with a good illustration of the 
utility of chemical analysis and the aid of the chemist, of 
which the practical farmer may occasionally avail himself with 
advantage. The analysis clearly points out a deficiency of potash 
and also of phosphoric acid ; and hence the employment of 
potash-manures on land of that description may be recommended 
with confidence. The composition of land like that of the soil 
of the experimental field moreover shovt^s that lime or clay-marl 
may be applied to it with advantage, and that it is impossible to 
grov/ any good roots, or barley, or wheat, or clover, on land of that 
charactei' without giving it a liberal dressing of phosphoric ma- 
nures. Moreover the loose and porous nature of the soil, and the 
want of a fair proportion of clay in it, clearly indicate the necessity 
of manuring it but very moderately with ammoniacal or nitro- 
genous manures ; for as the proportion of available mineral con- 
stituents which enter into the composition of the ashes of our 
usual farm crops is but small, and the solubility of these matters 
in water is greatly facilitated by ammoniacal salts, such poor 
soils are all the more rapidly exhausted when the crops grown 
upon them are too liberally manured with fertilisers rich in nitro- 
genous matters, or in salts of ammonia. 
For the sake of better comparison I have calculated the yield 
of each experimental plot for an acre, and placed the results in 
the subjoined Table ; — 
