Annual Chemical Report. 
335 
artificial application of potash-manures did not yield results 
warranting the recommendation of such manures to the practical 
agriculturist ; for even under conditions in which a beneficial 
effect was thereby produced, the results were not sufficiently 
marked to prove the economical advantage of laying out money 
in the purchase of potash-salts. During the past season, however, 
I. have obtained for the first time results showing in a most 
decided manner the practical utility of employing potash-salts as 
a fertilising agent in producing a luxuriant growth of clover 
and clover-seeds. 
The experiments to which I would direct particular attention 
were tried under my superintendence by Mr. John Coleman, on 
Lord Wenlock's home farm, at Escrick Park, near York. The 
experimental field was of a poor sandy character, and the piece 
selected as nearly as possible even, as regards the quality of 
both the land and the grasses. The grass and clover-seeds were 
sown the preceding year with a barley crop. The following 
manures were applied on the 11th April, and the first cutting 
was reaped on the 12th of June and the second on the 24th of 
August, each plot being carefully weighed on the same day as 
cut : — 
Plot. 
1. Nitrate of soda, at the rate of 4 cwts. per acre. 
2. Sulphate of ammonia „ „ 
3. Mineral superphosphate ,, „ 
4. Common salt „ „ 
5. No manure. 
6. Muriate of potash „ „ 
7. Sulphate of potash „ „ 
8. Sulphate of lime „ ton per acre. 
9. Mineral superphosphate and nitrate of soda, at the rate of 4 cwts. per 
acre each. 
10. Mineral superphosphate and muriate of potash, the rate of 4 cwts. 
per acre each. 
11. No manure. 
No change was visible until about the 23rd of April, when 
plots No. 1 (nitrate of soda) and No. 9 (mineral superphosphate 
and nitrate of soda) could be distinctly distinguished from all the 
others by their darker green colour and grosser growth, which 
was apparent until the crops were cut. 
The nitrate of soda, however, encouraged the growth of the 
Italian rye-grass to such an extent that the clover was for 
the greater part quite smothered, and the clover so choked that 
when I saw the field afterwards, at the end of last October, hardly 
a single plant of clover was visible on the plots to which the 
nitrate was applied in spring. On the other hand, the clover 
which grew very luxuriantly on plots 6 and 7, dressed with 
muriate and sulphate of potash respectively, grew still more 
luxuriantly on plot 10, dressed with mineral superphosphate and 
