Experiments upon Wheat, Barley, and Sioedcs. 307 
Mr. W. J, Edmonds's results, embodied in Table VI., are 
unfavourable to wide-drilling and thin seeding. It is difficult to 
account for the complete failure of the plan recommended for 
trial, little more than half the yield being obtained from the 
wide-drilled plots. The untouched portions were also much 
better than those which had simply been foot-pressed, an opera- 
tion which could scarcely have injured the crops, and which 
in other cases was beneficial. This fact almost warrants the 
assumption that the unmanured and untouched plots in this 
series must have been in some particulars more favourably placed 
than the remaining plots. 
Before making a few general remarks upon the foregoing ex- 
periments, it will be interesting to consider very briefly a similar 
series of plots, carried out simultaneously upon barley, &c., by 
Mr. lies, of Kempsford. 
In 1868, when experiments upon wide drilling were in 
progress upon the College Experimental Farm, a series of 
plots, treated similarly, was arranged for barley. The unfa- 
vourable character of that memorable summer for all spring 
corn-crops will long be remembered. There was, therefore, no 
special reason why an increased amount of light and heat should 
have exerted a beneficial result. The barley was sown March 19, 
the variety being Hallett's Pedigree, grown for two years pre- 
viously on the College Experimental Farm. The plots were 
measured and staked off, and the necessary rows removed from 
April 29 to May 4. There weie four wide-spaced plots, two of 
which were forked during the summer, and there were three 
unmanured and untouched plots for comparison. The results of 
this experiment were published in ' Practice with Science,' vol, 
ii., 1869. It will there be seen that the four wide-spaced 
plots, forked and unforked, were each and all better than any 
one of the untouched plots, and that by several bushels per 
acre. Mr. lies, of Kempsford, kindly undertook a similar 
series of experiments in 1869, and treated the plots as already 
described. During the early part of the summer the wide-drilled 
plots did not appear to advantage ; towards harvest they de- 
cidedly improved, the ears being exceedingly fine, and finally the 
weighing-machine recorded a greater yield of barley than upon 
the untouched plots. It will be seen in Table VII. that 30, 65, 
and 20 lbs. per acre were the average increases in the case of 
each pair of wide-spaced plots. The individual plots give less 
satisfactory results when taken singly, but in average results these 
three pairs of plots support the evidence of the previous year as 
to the advantages of wide drilling and thinner seeding. The 
barley was of good quality and was not appreciably coarser than 
that grown in the usual manner, neither was the weight per bushel 
sensibly less. 
