298 Report on ike Field Experiments at Wdbum. 
1887. Mineral manures were harrowed in on plots 4, 5, 6, 8, 
and 9, on October 17. The dung for plot 11b was made in the 
feeding boxes by four bullocks, which fed from November 24 
to December 15 on 30 cwts. of swedes, 2 cwts. 2 qrs. decorticated 
cotton-cake, 4 cwts. of maize-meal, and 5 cwts. of wheat-straw 
chaff, being supplied during the time with 12 cwts. of wheat- 
straw as litter. 
The dung after being made was clamped and kept in a shed 
until March 20, when it was weighed. The total weight was 
24 cwts. 1 qr. 7 lbs. To plot 11b, 15 cwts. 1 qr. G lbs. was applied, 
this being the calculated quantity (from the composition of the 
foods and litter employed) required to supply ammonia to plot 
11b at the rate of 200 lbs. per acre. The experience of previ- 
ous years having gone to show that farmyard manure supplying 
ammonia at the rate of 100 lbs. jjer acre produced little or no 
effect on the crops of either wheat or barley, it was decided to 
leave the plots IOb unmanured this season, and in the following 
one to try instead rape-cake, supplying ammonia at the same 
rate per acre. The nitrogenous top-dressings of nitrate of soda 
and ammonia-salts (sulphate of ammonia and muriate of am- 
monia in equal parts) were put on plots 2, 3, 5, 6, 8b, and 9b 
on May 5. A fortnight later the nitrate of soda began to show 
its effect, and the ammonia-salts a few days after. 
But little need be said to recall the exceptionally unfavour- 
able season, the heavy and continuous rains which did so much 
damage to corn crops, and perhaps worst of all, the almost total 
absence of sun and warmth so much required to ripen the grain. 
Under such circumstances it is not surprising that when after 
a very late harvest the corn was cut September 4-7, carted 
and stacked on September 14, and the produce thrashed and 
weighed on November 22, it was found to be very small. The 
rainfall during the year was 23'94 inches, as against 15'04 inches 
in 1887, and in the month of July alone it was no less than 4'96 
inches. Puparia of the Hessian fly were found on the plots, 
but the damage done, if any, was very slight. The results of 
the harvest are given in Table I. opposite. The produce of 
corn was very similar to that of 1886, also a very wet year (the 
rainfall then being 25*05 inches), but the yield of straw was 
considerably larger. The weight per bushel of the corn was 
exceptionally small — indeed, we have to go back to 1880 to find 
a parallel. 
Minerals used alone gave only as much as the average yield 
of the unmanured plots. Nitrate of soda supplying 50 lbs. 
ammonia, when used alone produced 3 bushels an acre more 
corn and 2 cwt. more of straw than ammonia-salts, supplying 
