S , ET C 
PRICE SIX CENTS, 
S'Z.tiO PER YEAR. 
VOL. XXXI. No. 10 
WHOLE No. 1310. 
[Entered according \0 Act of ConeresB. in the year 1875. by the Rural Publishing Company, In the o ffice of the Librarian Of (’on greaa at Washington,] 
addition ; (4) With 14 tons of farm-yard 
manure, per acre, per annum. 
BARLEY OROWH FOR 23 YEARS IN SUCCESSION ON THE 
SAME LAND. SEASONS 1852-1874. 
Dressed Corn Per ache, in Bushels. 
his statement the record of a single experi¬ 
ment extending through twenty-three years, 
This record illustrates the care with which 
all his experiments have been made, and 
shows that there i* a .-.table foundation for 
bis statements, which can oidy be over¬ 
thrown by corresponding experiments, which 
no minor institution that we know of has 
mad \ It also illustrates what we must do 
in this country, on our farms and at agricul¬ 
tural schools, if we would reach definite and 
reliable conclusions. He says : 
The soil upon which my experiments have 
been earned on is a heavy loam, with a clay 
subsoil, resting upon chalk, at a depth of 
from 8 to 12 feet. It is not artificially drained. 
Before commencing the continuous growth of 
barley, it had grown the following crops 
1817, Swedish turnips, with dung and super¬ 
phosphate—the roots carted oft'; 1848,barley, 
unmanured ; 1849, clover ; 1650, wheat; 1851, 
barley, manured with ammonia-salts. 
The first experimental barley crop was in 
1852, and the land has been under barley ever 
since. Thus, in 27 years, there have been 
grown one crop of clover, one of wheat, und 
25 of ba* ley ; the 23 of which have been 
under careful experiment. Excepting on 
ope plo, , dung, or animal manure of any 
kind, haa boeimpplied to the land during 
the period. 
In the following Table is given the average 
number of busheki of dressed corn per acre, 
over 28 years, 1853 to 1374 inclusive:—(1) 
With superphosphate of lime alone; (2) 
Prepared, which contains from 20 to 2-1 per 
cent, of soluble phosphates, 10 to 12 percent, 
of insoluble bone phosphates, and nitrogen 
equal to sulphate of ammonia 8 to 10 per 
eent. From the large percentage of am¬ 
monia coutained in this manure, it is well 
adapted for top-dressing grass land. 
Lawkh’ BureRPHOSP it ate, which contains 
from 25 to 23 per cent, of soluble phosphates. 
There is a large and increasing demand at 
home and abroad for this excellent fertilizer. 
Lawks 1, Cereal Manures, comprising 
wheat, barley, oats, grass, mangel and po¬ 
tato manures, and containing from 20 to 28 
per cent, of soluble and Insoluble phosphates, 
with nitrogen equal to sulphate of ammonia 
12 to 10 per cent. 
Lawks’ Concentrated Corn and Grass 
Manures, containing from 12 to 15 per cent, 
of soluble phosphates and nitrogen equal lo 
sulphate of ammonia 28 to 32 per cent. This 
manure forms au excellent top-dressing for 
com and grass, and is considered the best 
substitute now in use for Peruvian guano. 
One of Mr. Lawks’ la3t publications—per¬ 
haps the latest—is an elaborate paper on 
“The more frequent growth of barley in 
Great Britain ” read before the London 
Fanners’ duo a few weeks since. His ob¬ 
ject was to show that by the aid of artificial 
manures good crops of barley may be grown 
with profit upon heavy land, and much 
more frequently than according to the 
adopted systems of rotation ; and that on 
such land it is more advantageous to grow 
JOHN BENNET LAWES, F. R. S, 
Manures per Acre, per Annum. W Veins 
l.i‘i'2 —’74 
Rush. 
i . 21X 
20u lb. ammo-/ 
nia salt»(uv 275 - 49 
». nitrate hoi la) 
200 lb. linuno-l 
ilia (Ol’ 275 II). 
nitrate soda) I 
and sulphate \ 48* 
potash, soda, 
^aucl mieincaltij 
14 tons farmyard manure.| 45% 
Superphosphate auil 
'JH) lb. of ammonia-salt*, or 275 lb. of nitrate 
of soda, each contain nitrogen equal to 50 lb. 
af ammonia. Although there arc certain 
Important distinctions between the actions 
of these two manures, we may assume, for 
our present purpose, that in the quantities 
named they are of equal manurial effect. 
The average produce over 23 years, by su¬ 
perphosphate of lime alone is only 24% 
bushels per acre, per annum; showing, there¬ 
fore, that there was an important deficiency 
of something, which was supplied in the 
case of each of the other experiments. The 
audition of ammonia salts, or nitrate of soda, 
to the superphosphate, raises the produce to 
49 bushels per acre per annum. The addition 
to this mixtlire, of sulphates of potaali, soda 
and nmgne-ia, does not increase t he produce 
further, giving only 46% i ushs.; while 14 
tons of farm-yard manure have given 18% 
bushs. In fact, the lust three experiments 
quoted give almost identical amounts of 
produce ; and an average, over 23 in succes¬ 
sion, of more than 6 qrs. of dressed barley 
per acre, per annum. 
That small quantities of artificial manure 
should, over such a long period, give as much 
barley as 14 tons of farm-yard manure ap¬ 
plied annually, is certainly a most striking 
feet. It may be useful, and will serve as 
some explanation cf it, to point out briefly 
some of the most important points, both of 
distinction and of similarity, between the 
mixture of superphosphate of lime and am¬ 
monia salts or nitrate of soda, and farm-yard 
manure on the other hand. 
In round numbers there have been re¬ 
moved annually in com and in straw, about 
2% tons of produce per acre. Deducting 
from this the moisture it contains, there re- 
about 40% ewt., or rather more than 
curacy. His services to agriculture are as 
highly valued at home as they are widely 
known and quoted throughout the agricul¬ 
tural world. His portrait, which we copy 
from the Agricultural Gazette, will, there¬ 
fore, be regarded with interest by ourread- 
ers; for, as an experimental and scientific 
agriculturist, be belongs not to England but 
to all who till the soil, and it is proper to 
know and honor such a man, no matter 
where he was born. During the past thirty 
years iiis effort has been devoted to agricul¬ 
tural research and enterprise, as well In his 
laboratory as to the interpretation of facts 
and experiments wrought out in his fields, 
which interpretation has been embodied in 
numerous publications pro bono publico, llis 
home Is Rothamsted, Herts, England. He is 
acknowledged in England the father of the 
artificial manure trade. 
On the death of his father he succeed to 
Rothamsted in 1834, and at once commenced 
a series of experiments with the view of de¬ 
termining the peculiar action of different 
soils on bones, but more especially to solve 
the problem why bones did not suit his own 
land. The inquiry resulted in the successful 
application of bones dissolved in sulphuric 
acid, to the growth of root crops, in 1836. 
During the next four years Mr. Lawes con¬ 
tinued to prosecute with energy the pioneer¬ 
ing researches he had thus Instituted, both 
in the laboratory and the field, and his ex¬ 
periments were crowned with further dis¬ 
coveries, as coprolites and phosphorite, when 
treated with sulphuric acid, yielded him a 
rich superphosphate fertilizer. He now saw 
that artificial manures could be manufac¬ 
tured with profit, and according^ he pro¬ 
tected his discoveries by patent and erected 
his factories. 
His life, since has been devoted not only to 
the manufacture of cheap artificial manures, 
which have acquired great reputation and 
which are always sold under a guarantee of 
their constituents, but as ahove intimated, 
to the most careful experiments in agricul¬ 
tural chemistry and the most exact and 
exacting field experiments, calculated to 
establish the requirements of plints. As a 
result of these various experiments he now 
furnishes British agriculturists, from his ex¬ 
tensive factories, the following apecial 
manures: 
Lawes’ Patent Turnip Manure, which 
contains from 21 to 23 per cent, of soluble 
phosphates, 5 to 7 per eent. of insoluble 
phosphates, and 10 to 14 per cent, of organic 
matter. 
Lawes’ Dissolved Bones, containing 20 
to 24 per cent, of soluble phosphate, 8 to 12 
per cent, of insoluble bone phosphates and 
organic matter, containing nitrogen equal to 
sulphate of ammonia 4 to 6 per cent. 
Lawes’ Dissolved Bones, Specially 
mam 
2% tons of dry or solid substance removed 
annually ; and deducting from this again the 
mineral matter and nitrogen it contains, 
there remain about 44 cwt. of non-nitro- 
genous vegetable, or combustible substance. 
In the dung very much more than this 
amount of vegetable matter has been re¬ 
turned to the land every year, but in the 
artificial manure none. Here, then, we 
have two parallel experiments, extending 
over a period of 23 years, in one of which 
much more than the total amount of non- 
nitregenous or carbonaceous organic matter 
than was contained In the crop has been an¬ 
nually returned to the land, and in the other 
none, and yet the produce is equal in the two 
cases. 
Now, l would ask whether you think it 
possible that such a soil as mine could stand 
such a drain as this for 28 years or for 27 if 
we go back to the last application of dung, 
without showing a marked decline in the 
produce, if the plam. depended upon tte sup¬ 
plies of non-nitrogenous vegetable matter 
within the soil, or if that contained in the 
dung was at all essential to the result. 3 he 
conclusion is, I think, obvious, that ende 
barley after another corn [grain] crop by "With superphosphate of lime, and either 200 
means of artificial manures than after roots, lb. of ammonia-salts, or 275 lb. of nitrate of 
We regret that we have not space for the soda, per acre, ppr annum ; [8) With the 
entire paper, for it furnishes many valuable same amount of superphosphate and 
facts and suggestions. But as an illustration ammouia-salts or nitrate of soda, with sul- 
of Mr. Lawes’ experiments we copy from 1 phate of potash, soda and magnesia, in 
