110 Experime)dii tintli different Top-Dressings upon Wheat. 
salt : one land in the middle had no top-dressing. The nitrate 
soon gave a beneficial impulse to the vegetation ; but the cold 
Avet weather in July, and the appearance of the crop at harvest, 
made me by no means sanguine as to the result. The three 
adjacent lands in the middle were harvested separately, and 
thrashed immediately after harvest, with the following results : — 
Laue'd. 
Quantity of 
Nitrate 
per Acre. 
Cost 
of Nitrate. 
Yield of Com 
per Acre. 
Value of Crop 
at 52s. 
per Quarter. 
Increase iu 
Value. 
1 
Cwt. 
£. s. d. 
14 0 
Bush. pk3. 
32 2 
£. «. d. 
10 11 6 
£. s. d. 
1 6 3 
2 
28 2| 
9 5 3 
3 
1 
0 16 0 
34 0 
11 1 0 
1 15 9 
The early sale enabled me to make 52s. per quarter of the 
wheat, though all was about equally light, weighing about 17 
stone per sack. Had the season been more propitious, I have 
no doubt that the result would have been still more in favour of 
the nitrate. 
The quality of the land slightly improves towards that end of 
the field to which the smaller dressing was applied, but not to 
an extent that in itself can account for the difference in favour of 
the smaller dressing. The season probably turned the scale, 
though my manager considers 1 cwt. per acre enough to apply 
under similar circumstances. 
• The general and indiscriminate use of nitrate of soda to force 
the wheat crop is by no means to be advocated. I fully concur 
in Professor Voelcker's opinion, that it is chiefly serviceable on 
soils Avhich, if not heavy, at least have a good staple]; even there, 
if the plant is already forward and vigorous, its use may do more 
harm than good. The success with which it has been applied 
generally to the wheat crop on the light lands of Holkam and 
other parts of Norfolk, turns, perhaps, upon the fact that the 
occupiers of those soils generally have access to a marl pit — a 
mine of wealth which other light-land farmers envy them. Where 
you can marl, you may use nitrate of soda freely ; and con- 
versely, perhaps, where nitrate is in common use, the fear of an 
over-dressing of mail is much diminished. 
P. H, FllERB. . 
