106 Report of Experiments on the Growth of Wheat. 
alternating with a great deal of rain, it was impossible to prepare 
the land and sow the manures and seed in the experimental field 
until March, 1845 ; and, as the above statement shows, the period 
from seed-time to harvest was, with the exception of June, almost 
uniformly cold, wet, and unseasonable. Further, as already re- 
ferred to, mineral manures were applied on very few, and am- 
monia-salts, or rape-cake, on most of the plots. 
As above stated, the wheat-crop of the country was reported 
to be generally deficient in quantity as well as quality ; but in 
the experimental field, although the quality, as indicated by the 
weight per bushel, and the proportion of corn to straw, was low, 
the bulk and weight of total produce were above the average of 
the 20 years under comparable conditions of manuring. Indeed, 
both without manure, and with farmyard manure, the produce of 
corn was about \\ time, and that of straw about 2jt times as 
much as in the reputedly very much more favourable season of 
1844. 
The produce without manure being 23J bushels, and that by 
farmyard manure' 32 bushels, 3 cwts. of ammonia-salts per acre 
(succeeding a mineral manure in the previous season) gave 32^- 
bushels of corn and 4162 lbs. of straw, or more both of corn and 
straw than the 14 tons of farmyard manure ; whilst only 2 cwts. 
of ammonia-salts per acre, but used in conjunction with mineral 
manure (plot 18), gave even rather more corn, and not much 
less straw. 
It is unfortunate that mineral manure was in no case used 
alone in this season. But the effects of ammonia-salts, as in the 
preceding season, are very striking. It is also seen, by a com- 
parison of the result of 2 cwts. of ammonia-salts with mineral 
manure, with that of 3 cwts. without it (though succeeding 
mineral manure in the previous season), that the mineral con- 
stituents supplied, though so inactive when used alone in the 
preceding year, had a very marked effect when a sufficient amount 
of ammonia was at the same time provided within the soil. The 
influence of the mineral manure was, moreover, very much to 
increase the tendency to the production of com rather than of 
straw. 
Third Season, 1845-6. 
Throughout the winter of 1845-6 the temperature was generally 
above, and sometimes considerably above, the average. In De- 
cember and January there was a great deal of rain, but in 
November and February less than the average. The first part of 
March, too, was considerably warmer than usual, with little rain. 
It then became colder, and towards the end of the month there 
was frost and snow. The beginning and end of April were 
