338 Report of Experiments on the Growth of Barley, 
the growth of the crop, and to the rate of flow — these results of 
Dr. Frankland's not only strikingly confirm the conclusions drawn 
from those of Dr. Voelcker, but they afford additional points of 
interest. Thus, there is not only an obvious gradation in the 
amount of nitrogen, as nitrates and nitrites, comparing plot with 
plot, according to the amount of nitrogen supplied in the manure, 
but, dependent on the conditions above enumerated, there are 
both higher and lower amounts than in any of the cases investi- 
gated by Dr. Voelcker. 
In the autumn of 1871 the farmyard-manure plot received its 
dressing on October 22nd, and the mineral manures and ammonia- 
salts were applied on October 18 and 22. During November, and 
the first halt" of December, there was much less than the usual 
amount of rain ; about the 20th of December there was a fall of 
rather more than half an inch, and from that time to the end 
of the month there was more or less rain almost every day j 
giving, however, a total for the month of considerably less than 
the average. Still, the soil had gradually acquired a good deal 
of moisture ; and, on December 30th, a few of the drains in the 
experimental wheat-field ran a little. There was a little rain 
registered on January 1, 2, and 3, 1872, more than one-quarter 
of an inch on January 4th, more than half an inch on January 5th, 
and again more than half an inch on January 6th. On January 4th 
a few of the drains ran, and on both the 5th and 6th the whole 
of them. The results given in the first line of the Table (XLVI.) 
relate to samples collected on January 5th, which was the first 
occasion on which all the drains ran since the application of the 
manures in October. 
The drainage from the Plots 3-4, both of which have been 
entirely unmanured since 1851, and one for some years pre- 
viously, shows the lowest proportion of nitrogen as nitrates ; 
that from Plot 5, which had received mineral manure alone 
in 1852, and each year since, but mineral manure and ammonia- 
salts for several years previously, contained rather more ; 
that from Plot 6, with ammonia-salts equal 41 lbs. nitrogen 
per acre per annum, much more ; that from Plot 7, with am- 
monia-salts equal 82 lbs. nitrogen per acre per annum, again 
much more; and that from Plot 8, receiving 123 lbs. nitrogen 
per acre per annum, very much more still — in fact, more than 
in any other case examined by either Dr. Frankland or Dr. 
Voelcker, and an amount corresponding to a loss of 17| lbs. of 
nitrogen per acre, provided that an inch of rain passed away as 
drainage of that strength. The drainage from the nitrated plot, 
on the other hand, which had not received any nitrate since the 
previous spring, showed less loss of nitrogen than Plot 6, which 
