Annual  Report  of  the  Consulting  Chemist  for  1882.  235 
which  experience  agrees  well  with  the  produce  of  the  preceding 
ci'op  of  swedes  on  the  several  plots  in  1881. 
Thus  it  will  be  seen  that,  whilst  the  unmanured  plot  1a 
yielded  39  bushels,  weighing  53  9 lbs.  per  bushel,  the  second 
unmanured  plot  1b  produced  52'6  bushels,  weighing  54*1  lbs.  per 
bushel,  or,  in  other  words,  plot  1b  produced  fully  13£  bushels 
more  barley  than  plot  1a. 
Now  it  may  be  laid  down  as  a good  rule  that,  whenever  the 
produce  of  two  unmanured  plots  in  a series  of  field  experiments 
shows  differences  as  great  as  the  differences  between  the  average 
yield  of  the  variously  manured  and  unmanured  plots,  no  legi- 
timate conclusion  as  regards  the  efficacy  and  value  of  the 
manures  employed  in  the  experiments  can  be  drawn  from  the 
results  obtained  in  field  trials  with  manures. 
I abstain  from  making  any  comments  on  the  results  of  the 
barley  trials  in  Lansome-field,  for  the  difference  in  the  yield 
of  the  unmanured  ^-acres  is  as  great  as  the  difference  in  the 
yield  of  barley  on  any  of  the  manured  and  unmanured  plots. 
My  impression  is  that  the  natural  variations  in  the  productive 
powers  of  the  four  experimental  acres  in  Lansome-field  have 
more  to  do  with  the  variable  harvest-results  in  1882  than 
the  manures  which  were  applied  to  the  swede-crop  in  the 
preceding  year. 
IX. — Annual  Report  of  the  Consulting  Chemist  for  1882. 
The  analytical  work  done  for  Memoers  of  the  Society,  for  the 
year  beginning  the  1st  of  December,  1881,  to  the  1st  of  Decem- 
ber, 1882,  has  been  much  more  extensive  than  in  the  preceding 
year. 
During  the  year  terminating  December  1,  1881,  1058  samples 
■were  sent  to  the  Society’s  Laboratory  for  analysis ; in  the  year 
terminating  December  1,  1882,  no  less  than  1403,  or  345  more 
samples  than  in  the  preceding  year,  were  sent  for  analysis  by 
Members  of  the  Royal  Agricultural  Society.  A reference  to 
the  appended  Summary  shows  that  this  large  increase  is  prin- 
cipally due  to  the  analyses  of  superphosphates,  dissolved  bones, 
and  similar  artificial  manures,  and  of  oil-  and  feeding-cakes. 
Of  the  former  100,  and  the  latter  111  more  samples,  were  sent 
during  the  last  twelve  months  than  in  the  preceding  year. 
Also  a larger  number  of  samples  of  Peruvian  and  fish  guanos, 
nitrate  of  soda,  manure-cakes,  and  potash-salts  were  sent  for 
analysis  ; and  the  demand  for  complete  soil-analyses  and  reports 
has  increased,  and  exceeded  by  thirteen  the  number  of  soil-reports 
.made  in  the  preceding  year.  Seventy-three  soil-analyses,  for 
