1-4G Report of Experiments on the Growth of Barley, 
nitrate of soda applied in the spring.* It is intelligible, too, 
that the barley, the whole of the manures for which were applied 
in the spring, should, equally with the wheat-plot which received 
* During the early years of the comparative trials, a given amount of nitrogen, 
applied as ammonia-salts iu the autumn, gave more produce of wheat, both corn 
and straw, than au equal quantity applied in the spring as nitrate of soda ; but 
during the last 12 or 14 years the nitrate of soda, applied in the spring, has given 
more produce than the ammonia-salts applied in the autumn. 
The years in which the nitrate showed specially great superiority over the 
ammonia-salts, due rather to deficiency of produce by the latter, than to any con- 
siderable excess over the average by the former, were IStlO, 18(i7, 1869, and 1871. 
In 1860 the produce by ammonia-salts was very much less than the average, and 
by the nitrate slightly under the average, though much above the ammonia-salts ; 
and the records show that there had been au excess of rain in INovember, 
December, and January, and again in March, April, INlay, and June. In 18GT 
there was a greater deficieucj" of total produce by the ammonia-salts than in any 
other year, a small deficiency even by the nitrate, and very great deficiency by 
the ammonia-salts compared with the nitrate ; and there had been a greater or 
less excess of rain in almost every month from seed-time to harvest, namely, in 
November, December, January, February, March, April, IMay, and July. In 
1869 there was a considerable deficiency by the ammonia-salts, but less than iu 
1860 or 1867 ; and by the nitrate a small excess over its average, and a great 
excess over the ammonia-salts ; and there had been a considerable deficiency of 
rain in November, but a very considerable excess in December, January, and 
Februaiy, a slight excess in April, and a greater excess in Maj', but very dry 
weather afterwards until harvest. Lastly, in 1871, there was a very considerable 
deficiency by the ammonia-salts, a slight excess by the nitrate, and very great 
excess by it as compared with the ammonia-salts; there was an excess of rain in 
December and February, and a great excess in April, June, aud July. 
There was also considerable excess by the nitrate compared with the ammonia- 
salts in 1862, in 1866, and in 1868. But in these cases, especially in 1862 and 
1868, the result was, for the most part, due to over average produce by the nitrate, 
and but little, if at all, to under average by the ammonia-salts. Accordingly, iu 
1861-2, after a considerable deficiency of rain in the three preceding months, 
there was a considerable excess iu November, but again a deficiency in December, 
January, and February, and then a considerable excess in Maich, April, May, 
and June — that is after the nitrate had been applied, but after active vegetation 
had commenced. Again, in 1868, with a deficiency of rain in each of the four 
preceding months there was a slight excess in December, considerable excess in 
January, slight excess in February, March, and April, but very great deficiency 
afterwards until harvest. 
These examples, though diifering much from one another in many points, never- 
theless sufiiciently clearly point to tlie conclusion that, in the first series of years 
enumerated, the considerable difference between the amount of produce by the 
ammonia-salts applied in the autumn, and the nitrate of soda applied in the spring, 
■was due to deficient produce by the former resulting from a washing out of its 
nitrogen by the winter rains; whilst, in the other instances, it was due to the 
greater effectiveness of the nitrate under the influence of the conditions of the 
season after the commencement of active growth, which were widely different in 
the two cases more specially noticed; giving, in 1862, with a comparatively wet 
and cold spring and early summer, a greater excess of straw, and in 1868, 
with very hot and dry weather during the most active period of growth, a 
greater excess of corn. 
It will be understood that the above remarks are not supposed to give anything 
like a complete description of the characters and effects of the seasons referred to, 
but are only intended to illustrate the difference of effect of a given amount of 
nitrogen supplied as ammonia-salts in the autumn, and as nitrate of soda in the 
spring, dependent, in great measure, on the different degree of liability to loss by 
drainage in the two cases. 
