Essays in Natural History and AgricultureGarnett, Thomas
Science
Essays in Natural History and Agriculture
Garnett, Thomas
Agriculture; Salmon; Zoology
Guano " " 27 " " "
Nitrate of Soda " " 27 " " "
Unmanured part " " 19 2/3 " " "
I give these details to show that the land was in an exhausted
state previous to the commencement of the experiment I am now
about to detail. After the crop of 1842 was reaped, the land was
immediately ploughed up, and the season being very favourable, it
was tolerably well cleaned, and the seed was sown (without any
manure) about the first week in October. After the wheat came up,
it was manured with a dusting of one hundredweight of guano, over
the entire field (about one acre, three roods), to keep the plants
alive through the winter. In the spring, being divided into three
portions, it was manured with the same number of experimental
manures, which were furnished to me by Mr. Blyth, of Church, near
Accrington, who also analyzed the soil and subsoil for me. These
manures were applied about the 10th of April, and the experiment
was still further varied by covering a portion of each division
with guano a fortnight afterwards, at the rate of two hundredweight
to the acre, but all the manure applied to the crop, including the
hundredweight of guano put on in the autumn, did not exceed 6 1/2
hundredweight. The crop, which was a very thin one in the spring,
improved so much by the application of these manures, that when it
came into ear, it was allowed by all who saw it to be the best in
the neighbourhood; but the heavy rains of July caused it to lodge
in the best part of the field, and there it was attacked by rust,
and the sample was very indifferent. In addition to this drawback,
there being very little wheat grown in the neighbourhood of the
town, and this being much earlier than any of the other fields,
was attacked by the birds as soon as the grain was formed in the
ear. Notwithstanding all the efforts made to prevent them, they
continued feeding upon it until it was cut; and it is a very
moderate estimate of the damage, to say that they destroyed one-
fourth of the crop throughout the field. That part of the field
covered with manure (No. 1) being the earliest, suffered most.
There were patches of several square yards where there did not
appear to be a single grain left; and wherever the birds took a
grain from the middle of the ear, when in the milky state, the
grains on each side of it appeared to grow no more, but shrivelled
up in the ear.
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