Report of Experiments on the Growth of Wheat. 101 
In accordance with the nomenclature employed by Liebig, 
and generally adopted by writers on agricultural chemistry, all 
the above are, for convenience, distinguished as " inorganic " 
or "mineral" manures. Professor Hofmann* has, however, 
recently suggested the term cinereal (from cineres, ashes) to desig- 
nate those constituents which are found in the ashes of plants. 
Although, undoubtedly, far more appropriate than the terms 
" inorganic " or " mineral," the attempt to substitute it now would 
be fraught with more inconvenience and confusion than advan- 
tage. Liebig himself, has, indeed, of late, sought to repudiate 
the use of the term mineral in the restricted sense in' which he 
had habitually used it in agricultural discussions. He has even 
attempted, by means of direct misquotation, to fix the origination 
of the distinction upon ourselves, t 
Other constituents have been supplied as under : — 
Nitrogen — As sulphate, muriate, or carbonate of ammonia, or 
nitrate of soda, of commerce ; in farmyard manure, and in nitro- 
genous organic matter, such as rape-cake, &c. 
Non-nitrogenous organic matter, yielding by decomposition car- 
bonic acid, and other products — In rape-cake, rice, tapioca, and 
also in straw and in farmyard manure. 
The artificial manure or mixture for each plot, was generally 
ground up with a sufficient amount of, clay-ashes to make it up 
to such a fixed measure per acre as would facilitate its equal dis- 
tribution over the land. In the earlier years the mixtures so 
prepared were sown broadcast by the drill ; but they have for 
some time past, with proper precautions, been distributed by 
hand, as it was found that in that way the application of an 
exact amount of manure to a limited area of land could be best 
accomplished. Now, however, a drill has been constructed ex- 
pressly for the purpose of the application of the experimental 
manures. 
The field of 14 acres was at first divided into plots of which 
most consisted of two lands (each about 12 feet 5' inches wide) 
running the whole length of the field, and comprising together 
nearly two-thirds of an acre. After the second season, however, 
the double-land plots were each divided into two ; though, in most 
cases, the two were similarly manured, thus providing duplicate 
experiments with the same manure. 
* 'Reports of the Juries' of the International Exhibition of 1862 ; footnote, 
pp. 159, 160. Professor Hofmann has also, in his capacity of International 
Keporler, passed a judgment on the controversy between Baron Liebig and our- 
selves; fortunately, however, Baron Liebig's own works, and our own papers 
in this Journal, and elsewhere, remain in enduring protest against his mis- 
statement of the issues, and his caricature of our own opinions. 
t For further evidence on this point, see footnote at pp. 506-8 in the last number 
of this Journal ; also pp. 447, 448, and context, Vol. xvi. 
