118 
The Practical Value of Bung 
— minerals alone — are, however, of scarcely any use. This has 
been thoroughly well proved by such a number of diversified 
experiments that it appeal's scai'cely wortli while to try to prove 
over and over again what has been already set at rest. 
Sir John Lawes' experiments, carried on for such a long 
period, show that minerals alone for the first sixteen years pro- 
duced 17^ bushels of wheat per acre. Tlie Woburn experi- 
ments for ten years also produced 17^ bushels of wheat per 
acre. Many other experiments have been recorded of trials 
with mineral manures for corn. They have all, as a rule, had 
the same unpaying result. 
Average number 
o£ bushels 
per acre. 
The WoLurn experiments -witli mixed minerals and ammonia salts . 38 
The Rothamsted experiments, 32 j'ears, with mixed minerals and 
ammonia salts .......... 36 
The Rothamsted experiments, IG years, with minerals and nitrate 
of soda 35^ 
The second period of 16 years the nitrate of soda increased yield to . 36| 
The Rothamsted plot, 32 years, with 14 tons of dung annually . . 33 J 
Practically, ammonia salts with minerals produced the same 
results as nitrate of soda with minerals. The crops with nitrate 
increased, however, rather than diminished during the last 
period of sixteen years. Here, then, is the best evidence that 
no danger to the land need be feared from the proper applica- 
tion of artificial manures. Sir John Lawes' own words are : 
" When large crops of wheat have been grown by the applica- 
tion of nitrates, or salts of ammonia, with mineral manures, the 
soil does not appear to have gained or lost fertility." 
The working out of the various feeding trials at Woburn 
which I have given might of course be treated in a very 
different manner. What is called the spending value of roots, 
hay, straw, &c., might be charged at any low price, if it were 
the object to make it appear that the fattening of cattle was a 
fairly paying business. It must, on the other hand, be obvious 
that if swedes were charged 5s. per ton, hay or clover 21. per 
ton, and straw and labour allowed for nothing, much of the 
farm produce would return a very small amount of money. 
All calculations connected with the fattening of stock on 
purchased and valuable home-grown produce should take every 
local and accidental circumstance into account. For instance, 
the straw at Woburn is charged at the market value of 2/. per 
ton. In my own village, only ten miles off, straw has, for ten 
years past, averaged nearly '31. per ton. In some other dis- 
tricts, straw has made at times bl. per ton and hay 71., whilst 
roots have fetched from 12."}. to 20s. per ton. It is therefore 
quite clear that, if the calculations which I have given have 
