Growth of Wheat. 
257 
the plant, and the consequent shortcomings of partial dressings ; 
the absolute necessity of nitrogen for wheat, of silica for peas, 
and of potash for both one and the other, being thus forced upon 
the view. But we have a more severe and perhaps a more ex- 
perienced witness and critic than these in M. Barral, the Editor 
of the ' Journal d' Agriculture Pratique.' 
That accomplished Editor, it appears, has occupied a position 
in some degree antagonistic to M. Ville, being in part influenced 
" by his reverence for an illustrious savant (Boussingault), whose 
opinions M. Ville had attacked." A sense of public duty 
almost constrained M. Barral to visit Vincennes, where he 
was courteously received and urged to inspect in person the 
harvesting of certain of the trial plots. The general survey, 
and the table of results which follow, rest upon his excellent 
authority. " A glance at the different plots," he writes, " was 
sufficient to show, that where a dressing of manures, complete 
according to M. Ville's view, had been applied, the crop would 
exceed 30 hectolitres (33 bushels per acre), and that on the other 
plots the yield would fall much below 20 (22 bushels). 
He further states: — "On the 23rd of July a square which 
had received the complete manure was cut and thrashed in my 
presence, and on the 30th of July one-half of another plot which 
had only received phosphate of lime. On that same day the crop 
on an unmanured plot, which had been previously cut, was also 
thrashed." (These plots were part of the third successive wheat- 
crop from land cultivated and manured in I860.) 
The seed had been sown by hand at the rate of rather more 
than 1^ bushels per acre in lines about 5|- inches apart. Each 
experimental plot (are) contained 8 beds a metre (39 inches) 
wide, having 7 drills with a path nearly 13 inches wide between 
the beds, a cord being fixed round each bed to support the ears. 
The plots tested varied in extent from 4 poles (the unma- 
nured) to about 105 square yards (for the complete manure), and 
60 square yards (for the phosphate). M. Barral gives the details 
in full, but it will best suit our purpose to give only the 
results as adjusted to our own measures and weights : — 
Crop per Acre. 
Ville's complete 
Manure. 
Phosphate of Lime 
alone, 352 lbs. 
No Manure. 
Chaff and short stuff . . 
Corn 
lbs. cwts. lbs. 
5670=50 70 
645 
3324=19 80 
lbs. cwts. lbs. 
15*4=16 28 
264 
862= 7 78 
lbs. cwts. lbs. 
1821=16 28 
290 
721= 6 49 
Yield in bushels .. 
575 
14-4 
12-2 
Weight per hectolitre .. 
K1I. 
79-5 
KU. 
75* 
KU. 
74-5 
