206 Our Climate and our Wheat-Crops. 
Table XI. 
Seasons. 
Dates of Sowing 
Ammonia-saUs. 
Produce More (+) or less (-) 
by Spring Sowing. 
1 
Rainfall, Large 
Gauge. 
Drainage (60 Inch 
Drain Gauge). 
From 
Autumn 
to Spring 
Sowing. 
i 
From 
Spring 
Sowing 
to end of 
June. 
From 
Autumn 
to Spring 
Sowing. 
From 
Spring 
Sowing 
to onil of 
June. 
Autumn. 
Spring. 
Com. 
Straw. 
Total. 
1873 
1874 
1875 
1876 
1877 
1878 
1879 
Oct. 18 
„ 28 
„ 23 
„ 30 
IV 
Nov. 3 
Oct. 15 
Mar. 25 
„ 19 
„ 23 
24 
Apr. 11 
Mar. 14 
„ 10 
Bushels. 
+ 10^ 
- 10^ 
- Oi 
+ 2 
+ 131 
+ 9^ 
+ 10^ 
lbs. 
+ 1058 
-1869 
- 218 
+ 216 
+ 953 
+1881 
+2106 
lbs. 
+ 1687 
-2506 
- 195 
+ 290 
+ 1747 
+2531 
+2788 
Inches. 
18-53 
1 7-05 
1 10-55 
12-17 
22-01 
11-17 
15-05 
Inches. 
4- 39 
5- 12 
7-89 
6- 12 
4-90 
12-30 
12-86 
Inches. 
11-45 
2-89 
5-21 
10-14 
15-78 
8-11 
13-09 
Indies. 
0-05 
0-25 
0- 51 
1- 94 
0-74 
5-96 
4-95 
Averages 
+ 51 
+ 590 
+ 906 
13-79 
7-65 
9-52 
2-06 
of drainage from the different plots in the experimental wheat- 
field. But the record of the amount of the rain passing through 
(50 inches of soil and subsoil in one of the " drain-gauges " des- 
cribed at p. 19G, will at any rate give some idea of the charac- 
ters of the different seasons in regard to drainage. As the soil 
of the " drain-gauge " is without vegetation, the amounts of 
drainage passing through it during the winter, that is from the 
date of autumn sowing to the date of spring sowing, will doubtless 
more nearly represent the relative, and in some degree the actual, 
amounts passing through the soil of the wheat-field during that 
period than afterwards. But, after active vegetation has com- 
menced, the drainage would doubtless be proportionally less in 
the Avheat-field than through the bare drain-gauge soil. 
From what has been shown in the former part of this paper, 
it will be obvious that the exact differences in the amount of 
produce obtained by autumn and by spring sowing respectively, 
in the different seasons, cannot be at all adequately explained by 
the abstract given of rainfall and drainage alone. To do this, 
it would be necessary to go into detail as to the distribution of 
the rain, the coincident temperatures, and the condition of pro- 
gress of the growing crop. But to bring prominently to view 
the effect of loss by drainage, it will be well to confine attention 
to the two extreme cases ; the one in which the highest, and the 
other in which the lowest produce, of both corn and straw, was 
obtained after the autumn sowing of the ammonia-salts. These 
are 1874 and 1879. 
In 1874 there was obtained not only much more produce, both 
corn and straw, by autumn than by spring sowing ; but by 
autumn sowing there was then obtained the highest produce in 
