BULLETIN OF THE BUSSEY INSTITUTION. 255 
‘living plants are actually contrasted, carry a conviction to the mind of 
the observer that is not easily expressed in words. 
‘The peat used in these experiments, and in several of those which 
follow, was from the same bed as that employed upon Section AA 
in the field experiments of 1871 and 1872, which were reported in a 
previous number of this “ Bulletin” (pages 80 to 115). In those experi- 
ments it did not appear that the application of peat to the land did any 
good; but the conditions to which the peat was exposed upon the field 
were necessarily very different from those which obtained in the glass- 
house; and, moreover, the soil of the field already contained an abun- 
dant supply of nitrogenized matters, as the records of crops obtained 
upon the adjoining section A show. 
Growth of Maize in Peat and Coal Ashes. —On January 21, 1873, 
one glass preserve jar was charged with a mixture of 230 grammes of 
air-dried peat from the Bussey Farm, and 250 grammes of coal-ashes 
such as were used for the experiments reported on pages 60 and 69, 
and which, as it turned out, were not of themselves altogether free from 
nitrogen ; while another jar was filled with the peat alone. ‘I'wo ker- 
nels of common yellow corn were planted in each jar, and the soils 
were watered with rain-water until April 29, when the crops were har- 
vested with the following results : — 
The Crops, harvested April 29, 1873, 
No. of the Jar. 
NA et Biv os} Grew to height in inches. 
I—Peat and  B.BB0 ie esi. Ld a 
IiI— Peat alone . . meee rds, nity fee se : a 
The color and appearance of the plants were good, and the convic- 
tion that they obtained nitrogen from the peat was unavoidable. 
Compare the table on page 69. 
Growth of Buckwheat in Peat, and in Mixtures of Peat with New 
Jersey Green Sand, Berkshire Sand, and Ooal-Ashes (of the sort not 
wholly free from nitrogen). — On February 13, 1873, four glass pre- 
serve jars were filled with the following substances ; viz., No. I. with a 
mixture of 250 grammes of “ West Jersey green sand marl” and 230 
