398 Report of J^xperiments loith different Manures 
a dressing with nitrate of soda and salt. By this means Mr. Cole- 
man, who manages the Royal Agricultural College farm, has 
been able to grow good crops of wheat on thin brashy and ex- 
posed fields, which usually without such a dressing yielded but a 
scanty produce. 
Nitrate of soda and guano often contain hard lumps, which 
ought to be carefully broken down before application : this is 
generally neglected, to the great disadvantage of the farmer. It is 
true there is some difficulty in reducing guano to a fine powder, 
and there is trouble connected with passing through a fine sieve 
nitrate of soda or guano ; but no trouble or additional expense for 
labour should deter any one from reducing artificial manures, in- 
tended to be used as top-dressings, into a fine powdery condition : 
for the difference in the efficacy of manures in such a condition, 
and the same manures applied in a rough state, is much greater 
than most people believe who have not tried the experiment. 
Whilst speaking of the application of top-dressings, I cannot 
refrain from observing that all artificial manures — such as nitrate 
of soda, guano, or a mixture of nitrate of soda and salt — should 
not only be first passed through a fine sieve, but they should also 
be mixed with three to five times their own weight of fine red 
ashes, dry soil, or sand, before sowing them broadcast by hand, 
or, what is much more convenient and better, by the broadcast 
manure distributor. Chambers' or Reeves' dry manure dis- 
tributor cannot be too highly recommended for sowing, in a 
most uniform and expeditious manner, top-dressings of every 
description. 
In conclusion, I beg publicly to thank Mr. Coleman for the 
obliging manner in which he has assisted me in carrying out 
the preceding experiments. 
Royal Agricultural College, December, 1859. 
XXII. — Report of Experiments with different Manures on Per- 
manent Meadow Land. By J. B. Lawks, F.R.S., F.C.S., and 
Dr. J. H. Gilbert, F.C.S. 
(Continued from p. 272.) 
Part IV. — Chemical Composition of the Hay. 
Thus far it has been shown, that the produce of hay on permanent 
meadow land was more than doubled by means of manure alone. 
It has also been shown, that the description of the produce grown 
on the manured land was very different from that on the un- 
manured ; and again, that it was widely different according to 
