340 Report of Experiments on the Growth of Barley, 
bj mineral manure and nitrate of soda — the latter not applied 
until the spring — was considerably above the average. 
From June 11th until October 25th none of the drains ran ; but 
there was a flow from most of them on the 25th, 26th, and 27th 
of the latter month ; and, as the Table shows, samples of the 
drainage of October 26th were collected and analysed. The dung 
had been put upon its plot on October 14th ; the mineral manures 
and the ammonia-salts were sown on October 16th and 17th. There 
was more or less rain registered each day afterwards, until, on 
the 24th there was about one-third of an inch, on the 25th more 
than half an inch, and on the 26th nearly nine-tenths of an inch. 
These heavy rains had come on when the land was only partly 
ploughed, only one or two plots being finished, and some 
scarcely touched. At the time of the collection of the drainage, 
therefore (October 26th}, scarcely two plots were in the same con- 
dition as to the working of the land, so that some irregularities 
in the relative composition of the waters would be expected. 
There was still, in the main, a gradation in the amount of nitro- 
gen as nitrates in the drainage-water, according to the amount of 
ammonia-salts applied ; but the quantities were, throughout, com- 
paratively low for winter-drainage collected soon after the sowing 
of the manure. This was probably in part due to the soil not 
having been completely broken up, and the manures, therefore, 
not being thoroughly distributed, but partly also to washing out, 
or dilution, for many hours before the samples were collected. 
Some of the drains ran, more or less, eight times during 
JVovember, and most of them two or three times. In December, 
again, most ran six, and some seven times, completing a year of 
much more frequent running than any since the observation of 
them commenced in 1866. 
On January 2, 4, and 5, 1873, the drains from all excepting 
the dunged plot, and on January 3rd, 10th, and 19th, from all, with- 
out exception, ran. On January 3rd there was a very full, but at 
each of the five other dates only a moderate, flow. On January 19th 
samples were collected from all the plots excepting No. 9, the 
flow from which had stopped when the collection was made. 
Since the collection on October 26, 1872, there had been about 
5 inches more than the average fall of rain ; some of the drains 
had run more than twenty, and most sixteen or seventeen, times ; 
whilst, even since the beginning of the month, all but the dunged 
plot had previously run five times. Accordingly, after so much 
washing out of the soil, the amount of nitrogen as nitrates and 
nitrites was comparatively small for winter-drainage ; but there 
was very obvious gradation in the amount according to the 
quantity of ammonia-salts which had been applied. 
Between January 19th and February 26th there were frequent, 
