On the Use of the Water-Drill. 
375 
and inferior soils where failure was frequent, and where success 
was supremely needed ; for it is diffit ult to estimate accurately 
the benefit which accrues to such soils from having a full and 
heavy crop (jf coleseed, with some cake or corn consumed upon 
them. The results upon succeeding crops are most palpable and 
unmistakeable. 
During the last two years I have sown all my oats with the 
water-drill. Where these crops have been sown upon land where 
coleseed had just been eaten, and which was in thoroughly good 
condition, I have applied 2 cwt. per acre of Lawes' superphosphate 
of lime, last year at a cost of 15s., and this year, from the reduc- 
tion in the prit e, at a cost of 13s. 6rf. In one or two instances, 
where the oats were sown upon wheat stubbles, 1 have this year 
applied 1 cwt. of Peruvian guano and 1 cwt. of superphosphate, 
properly mixed, per acre, at a total cost of 11. Os. Sd. The 
results have been eminently satisfactory; and, had I contemplated 
writing this paper, I would have made some careful experi- 
ments to show the precise amount of benefit derived by this 
crop from the use of the water-drill. But although I have 
failed to do this, I can nevertheless record my convictions, 
arrived at by a most vigilant attention to the crops whilst grow- 
ing, and to tbeir appearance at the time of harvest. With the 
oat crop my experiments were somewhat different from those 
made with the green crops, my object being ratlier to ascertain 
the amount of benefit to be derived from the use of super- 
phosphate applied in a liquid form by the water-drill, than 
to test the comparative merits of the two drills. I therefore 
in every field — as near the middle of it as I could — left one 
width of the drill without any manure. These six rows I con- 
tinued to notice at different intervals throughout the whole of 
the summer. When they first came up only a slight difference 
was perceptible, but as they commenced growing the difference 
became more distinct, until they reached the " weaning time," 
when those without manure assumed a weak and sickly appear- 
ance, whilst the others were scarcely checked in their growth, 
and where the land was free from wireworms made rapid and 
surprising progress, which made the unhealthiness of the six 
rows increasingly visible. For my own information, and to aid 
me in deciding upon my future course with reference to the 
growth of oats, 1 attempted at harvest to estimate the difference 
in the produce of the crop, which I placed at 3 quarters per acre 
in two or three different cases. My readers will be prepared, 
therefore, to receive the statement that it is my intention to 
continue the use of the water-drill and superphosphate for this 
crop. I may here remark that three of these fields, of 14 acres, 
