BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 141 
As was the case in the previous years, the barley crops of Sections 
B and BB profited by the application of farm-manure, of wood-ashes, 
and sulphate of potash. Pearlash seemed to do better this year upon 
the barley, and the long horse-manure worse than before, as ‘compared 
with the other fertilizers ; though the crops are all so light that the 
results must be viewed with caution. During the dry weather the 
barley plants were subjected to conditions so unfavorable to their 
growth, that even the best manured squares yielded miserable crops. 
It seems plain, however, that potash was a useful addition to the 
land, even for the growth of the grain crop, and that beside the 
potash there was needed for the grain a supply of nitrogen. Com- 
paratively good results were obtained both with the farm manure, 
rich in nitrogen, and with the sulphate and the carbonate of potash 
(both that in the wood-ashes and in the pearlash); but both these 
potash salts do manifestly supply some nitrogen to plants by acting 
upon that contained in the humus of the soil. 
When compared with the results obtained from the other kinds of 
crops, the experiments with barley illustrate the well-known fact that 
the grain crops usually profit more by the application of assimilable 
nitrogen-compounds than either the bean crop or the ruta-baga crop. 
The delicate, short-lived grains seem to have less power than either of 
the other crops to subsist upon the coarse, nitrogenous food that is 
obtainable from the soil. 
The beans did well with all the potassic manures, namely, the long 
horse-manure, the wood-ashes, and the carbonate and sulphate of 
potash. In the absence of potash, nitrogenous manures did the 
beans no good. So far as the soil of this experimental field is con- 
cerned, at least under the present conditions, both sulphate and 
carbonate of potash have proved to be useful manures. Under 
the influence of these substances, the bean plants have been able to 
supply themselves from the soil with both phosphoric acid and _ nitro- 
gen. The nitrogenous manures, such as sulphate of ammonia and 
fish-scrap, yielded still less in 1873 than before, now that several 
successive crops of beans had been taken from the land ; and it is 
noteworthy that the strawy horse-manure gave better results than 
the cow-manure. The crops obtained by the use of the two kinds of 
dungs doubtless stand to one another very much in the same pro- 
