Report on the Field and Feeding Experiments at Wohiirn. 305 
In 1879, on the contrary, the wheat was sown as late as the 
15th of November, and cold weather having set in, the wheat 
was fully two months and a half in the ground before it got 
throunfh the surface : and as the summer of 1880 was wet and 
cold, the wheat got blighted, did not ripen properly, and in 
consequence yielded a miserable produce. 
Thus one of the two unmanured plots in 1880 yielded only 
9i bushels of wheat, weighing as little as 50 lbs. per bushel, 
and the second unmanured plot 14 bushels, weighing only 
49 lbs. per bushel ; whereas in 1881 the former plot produced 
25^ bushels (in round numbers), weighing 57^ lbs. per bushel, 
and the latter 25 bushels, weighing 59 6 lbs. per bushel. 
It is a remarkable fact, that a light soil, like that of the 
experimental field, after having grown five crops of wheat in 
succession, produced 25 bushels of good wheat in the sixth 
season, without any manure. This favourable result, I cannot 
help thinking, is largely due to the fact that the wheat-crop of 
1881 was sown early in autumn. The wheat came up well, and 
kept on steadily growing without a check, and had arrived at 
maturity in the beginning of August, when a good deal of later- 
sown wheat was still unfit for harvesting, and was subsequently 
spoiled by the continuous rain and cold weather which pre- 
vailed towards the end and beginning of September. The 
purely mineral-manures on plot 4 raised the produce only 
3 bushels above that of the unmanured plots 1 and 7, whereas 
on plot 2 ammonia-salts alone gave an increase of about 6^ 
bushels, and nitrate of soda alone on plot 3 yielded an increase 
of 16 bushels over the unmanured wheat. 
The heaviest crop, it will be seen, was produced on plot 9, 
manured with minerals and a heavy spring-dressing of nitrate 
of soda. This plot produced 47 "8 bushels of wheat, weighing 
nearly 60 lbs. per bushel, and 1 ton 18 cwt. 3 qrs. and 5 lbs. of 
strong and clean straw. 
The same quantity of minerals and only half the quantity of 
nitrate of soda on plot 6 produced 45*2 bushels, weighing 
60 lbs. per bushel, and 1 ton 16 cvvts. 3 qrs. and 19 lbs. of 
straw, or only 3^ bushels less of wheat than was obtained with 
double the amount of nitrate of soda applied on plot 9. 
Neither excessively large doses of nitrate of soda nor of 
ammonia-salts, like the quantities used in these experiments, 
produce anything like so beneficial an effect as moderate quan- 
tities of nitrate of soda or ammoniacal top-dressings. Nitrate of 
soda, applied alone or in conjunction with mineral manures, 
produced better crops of wheat than ammonia-salts alone, or the 
mixed mineral and ammoniacal manures. 
Farmyard-manure, even when used in the moderate quantity 
VOL. xviir. — s. s. X 
