The Hills’ Experiments on Barley. 
209 
given in one dressing, when the plants were three inches high, 
and not, as with the wheat, in three separate dressings. 
The variety of barley used was “Hallett’s Pedigree,” the 
soil that from Stackyard Field, the pots earthenware ones, and 
the experiments in duplicate. The strengths of solutions for 
seed-soaking were, as before, 1 per cent., 2 per cent., and 5 per 
cent. ; and of the direct applications \ cwt., \ cwt., and 1 cwt. 
per acre. With the silicates of potash and soda 2 cwt. and 
4 cwt. per acre respectively were used. The barley was sown 
on April 19, 1904. The soaking of the seed, on account of the 
harder external covering, was continued for three hours, and 
not for fifteen minutes only as in the case of the wheat. 
In the first place the effect on germination was in no way 
of the marked character that it was with wheat, and, for all 
practical purposes, it may be said that the effect may be ignored. 
Out of the thirty-four pots planted with twelve seeds each, in 
nineteen of them all twelve seeds came up, in eight others 
eleven seeds grew, and only in seven pots did the number fall 
to ten, so that any difference in percentage of germination 
would be attributable to chance seeds rather than to any real 
effect of the treatment. Hence this side of the question may 
be ignored. 
In regard to general appearance and growth the differences 
were also not so marked as with the wheat. It was unfortunate 
that in some instances disparities showed themselves between 
duplicate pots, and, the experiment being in duplicate only, no 
further check was available. The more one has experience in 
pot-culture methods the more does one find the necessity, where 
differences are small, to take into account only such results 
as are strictly in accord, and not to trust merely to averages, 
unless they be in fair agreement as to their constituent items. 
Throughout the present experiment, therefore, importance 
is only attached to results which were from duplicates in fair 
agreement with one another, others being queried (?). 
In the earlier stages there was nothing to mark a difference 
between the treatment with sulphate of manganese and that 
with sulphate of iron. The silicates, on the other hand, 
seemed to have kept the plants back at first. As time went on, 
seed-soaking with sulphate of manganese appeared to have done 
better than that with sulphate of iron, and also to constitute 
an improvement on the untreated lots. The straw, in particular, 
was longer. Beyond this, little could be noticed as calling 
for definite comment, and the issue had really to be left to the 
weighing of corn and straw. 
The plants were photographed early in August, and the 
crops cut on August 9, they beiug subsequently weighed. The 
results are set out in Table II., page 210. 
VOL. 66. 
P 
