Essays in Natural History and AgricultureGarnett, Thomas
Science
Essays in Natural History and Agriculture
Garnett, Thomas
Agriculture; Salmon; Zoology
6d.), and a
fortnight after I had it sowed with 2 cwt. of guano to the acre.
When the warm weather came, these manurings seemed to help it
wonderfully, and it was, as I have before stated, a very promising
crop; but the cold, ungenial weather we had through a great part
of the summer, and the continued rain we had whilst the wheat was
in flower, destroyed all the former promise: and the manuring with
guano, so far from being beneficial, was very injurious--so much
so, that I believe every shilling's-worth of it applied to my
wheat this year, made the crop a shilling worse than if nothing
had been applied; and all ammoniacal manures had the same effect.
It may be asked how I know it was the guano, and not the chemical
manure. In answer to this inquiry, if made, I may observe, that I
supplied two of my neighbours with the chemical manure, and they
applied it without guano on very poor land, and they both assert
they had never such good crops of wheat before; but everywhere in
this neighbourhood, the only good samples of wheat that I saw or
heard of were grown on exhausted soil. This appears to me to be a
strong proof that chemistry has a great deal to learn before it
can adapt its measures to all varieties of seasons, particularly
as it cannot know beforehand how the season may turn out. If
further proof be required of the injurious effect upon grain crops
of ammoniacal manures in general, and of guano in particular, I
may mention that in another field of wheat, sowed on the 21st
December, and which did not come up until the frost broke, in
March (the previous crop having been Swedes), the blade was so
yellow and the plant altogether so small and sickly in appearance,
that I had it manured with a water-cart from a cesspool in April.
This appeared to produce a wonderful improvement immediately, as
the plant assumed a deep green and grew very fast, but when it
ought to have shot, the heads seemed to stick in the sockets, the
blade and straw became mildewed and made no progress in ripening.
It was not fit to cut for three weeks after the experimental
field, although it was an early white wheat, and the result was a
miserable crop--far worse than the experimental field. The
instance of injury from the use of guano, I had from a neighbour,
who told me he had sowed a patch of oats with it, and that they
never ripened at all, and that he was compelled to cut them green
as fodder for his cattle. I had a striking proof this season of
the much lower temperature required by oats than wheat, when
strongly stimulated by manuring. I had gathered an ear of wheat
and a panicle of oats the previous season, which seemed to me to
be superior varieties; and that they might have every chance, I
dibbled them alongside each other in my garden, and determined to
manure them with every kind of manure I could procure, as I had an
idea that it was not easy to over-manure grain crops, if all the
elements entering into the composition of the plant were applied
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