100 Report of Experiments on the Growth of Barleij, 
much dispnting and quarrelling over truths which now seem to- 
them self-evident." * 
Considering that the "Mineral Theory," about which there- 
was so much " disputing and quarrelling " has in reality been sa 
long both refuted and buried, and that its author not only seeks 
to repudiate it, but to adopt without acknowledgment the views 
of his opj)onents put forward in correction of his own, it would 
be only waste of the reader's time to repeat the process of refuta- 
tion and burial in any detail here. But those who may be curious- 
to examine into the history and the truth of the matter for them- 
selves, we would refer to the third and fourth English editions of 
Baron Liebig's book (1843 and 1847), or to the German editions^ 
■prior to the seventh, and to our own papers in Volumes xii., xvi.,. 
xxiv., and xxv. of this Journal. 
Before commencing the consideration of the individual 
seasons, it may be well to add, by way of preliminary statement^ 
that in the comments on the varying quantity and qualit}"^ of 
produce obtained by one and the same manure according to 
season, the comparisons of the produce of each separate seasor> 
with the average of the twenty seasons, will be made with 
as little reference as may be needed to the question of how 
far the result may be affected by the use of the same manure 
year after year on the same plot. In accordance with the 
plan already given, this subject, of the degree, or the limit, of 
the effects of accumulation, or of exhaustion, by previous 
manuring and cropping, on the produce of succeeding seasons, 
will receive separate and full consideration in Section IV. 
Lastly, it will be useful to bear in mind throughout, that, so 
far as the influence of season is concerned, the quantity of the 
produce depends greatly on the amount and the distribution of 
rain during the growing period ; and the qualify (proportion 
of corn and quality of corn), on a suitable adaptation of tempera- 
ture. And, so far as the influence of manures is concerned, the 
* The following is the paragraph from the original — 
" In (iieser Weise war es meinen Ansichteu iiber den Feldbaubetrieb, iiber die 
Ursachen der Erschopfung der Felder imd die Bedingungen der Wiederherstellung 
ihrer Fruchtbarkeit ergangen ; in den 16 Jahren, die zwischen der 6. und 7. 
Auflage nieines Buches liegen, war meine Lehre so gut wie zu Grabe getragen, 
sie wurde von der grossen Mehrzahl der practischen Landwirthe fiir vollkommeu 
widerlegt gelialten, was wohl ganz unzweifelhaft daraus entnommen werden 
diirfte, dass eine der beriihnitesten wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaften ihre grosse 
goldene Medaille meinen beharrlichsten Gegnern zur Besiegelung ihresTriumphes 
iiber die Mineraltlieorie verliehen hat. Mit der Veroffentlichung der 7. Auflage 
meiner ' Chemie in ihrer Anwendung auf Agricultur und Physiologic,' ist von 
einer Widerlegung meiner Lehre nicht mehr die Rede, und die jiingere, wissen- 
schaftlich weit hoher stehende Generation der Landwirthe begreift es nicht mehr, 
dass so viel Hader und Zank iiber Wyhrlieiten war, die ihnen jetzt als selbstver- 
stiindlich gelten." (Ueber Giihrung, liber Quelle der Muskelkraft und Ernahrung. 
Vorrede, pp. ix-x.) 
