French Experimental Farm at Vanjours. 
313 
manure for roots, and the importance of diluting it when applied 
to growinf^ crops. The yield increases in the following propor- 
tions : 100 : 107; 132 : 183. 
If the farmyard manure be valued at Gs. 5r/. per ton, including 
all costs, and 2>s. 2f/. be charged for each ton of liquid manure, 
wh(>n applied to the land together with the water with which it 
was diluted, it appears that the yard manure in plot 1 constitutes 
a charge against the roots of 4*. Qd. per ton ; the sewage in plot 
2 a charge of Is. ; that in plot 3 of 1*. \^d. ; and, lastly, manure 
and sewage together in plot 4 make a charge of 35. 4<f. per ton. 
It must not be concluded from this, remarks M. Moll, that 
there is any benefit in restricting the supply of manure, because 
other outgoings, such as rent, taxes, tillage, seed, hoeing, are 
chargeable upon the land, whether the crop be larger or smaller. 
I have no doubt that, all costs being included, the crop on plot 3 
was more economically grown than that on plot 2. 
The conclusions to be arrived at from these and similar expe- 
riments, so far as they can at present be drawn, are thus summed 
up by the inanager, M. Moll, after remarking on the difficulties 
he had to contend with, from unfavourable seasons, the incom- 
plete state of his apparatus, and the want (now removed) of a 
supply of water for purposes of dilution. 
1. Night-soil alone, applied to crops in full growth during dry 
weather in summer, is always more or less injurious. 
2. It is generally of service when applied during rain in sum- 
mer, but its action depends much upon the amount of rain during 
and after the dressing, the nature and state of forwardness of the 
crop, and the greater or less permeability of the soil. 
3. Applied during drought to pastures newly mown, it pro- 
duces little or no effect until the first heavy rain. 
4. If it be spread on bare ground shortly before sowing, it 
appears to be equal in immediate effect to a similar weight of 
good farmyard manure ; and, applied in considerable quantities 
(say 32 to 48 tons an acre) and on clay soils, the effects will be 
apparent for two or even three years. 
5. Since, however, weight for weight, it contains less nitrogen 
than farmyard manure ("35 instead of '597 per cent.), it follows 
tliat 59 lbs. of nitrogen in night-soil will produce as much effect 
as 100 lbs. in farmyard manure. 
6. The most efficacious mode of application is to mix " soil " 
with from three to five times its bulk of water, and apply it in 
spring to young plants. 
7. Applied in the above form to beetroot, it produced 26 tons 
II cwts. of clean roots per acre from a supply of 63 lbs. of nitro- 
gen ; whereas common manure, containing 448 lbs. of nitrogen, 
only gave 24 tons 17 cwts. In the first instance each pound of 
