----+-----------------------------------------+----------+---------- 4 |Mixed Mineral Manure and 400 lbs. | | | Ammonia-salts (= 82 lbs. Nitrogen) | 51.9 | 48.1 6 |Mixed Mineral Manure and 550 lbs. | | | Nitrate Soda (= 82 lbs. Nitrogen) | 50.4 | 49.6 ----+-----------------------------------------+----------+---------- [Note 1: 13 years only, 1852-1864.] [Note 2: 475 lbs. Nitrate = 71 lbs. Nitrogen in 1852; 275 lbs. = 41 lbs. Nitrogen in 1853 and 1854; 550 lbs. = 82 lbs. Nitrogen each year afterwards.] It is not necessary to make any comments on this table. It speaks for itself; but it does not tell half the story. For instance, in the case of wheat and barley, it gives the average result for 20 years. It shows that when 100 lbs. of nitrogen in a soluble and available form, are applied to wheat, about 68 lbs. are _left in the soil_. But you must recollect that 100 lbs. was applied again the next year, and no account is taken of the 68 lbs. left in the soil--and so on for 20 years. In other words, on plot 8, for instance, 2,460 lbs. of nitrogen have been applied, and only 775 lbs. have been recovered in the total produce of grain, straw, and chaff, and 1,685 lbs. have been left in the soil. Mr. Lawes estimates, from several analyses, that his farm-yard manure contains 0.637 per cent of nitrogen, 2.76 per cent of mineral matter, and 27.24 per cent of organic matter, and 70 per cent of water. According to this, the plot dressed with 14 tons of manure every year, for 20 years, has received 3,995 lbs. of nitrogen, of which 583¼ lbs. were recovered in the produce, and 3,411¾ lbs. were left in the soil. In the case of barley, 3,995 lbs. of nitrogen was applied during the 20 years to the plot dressed with farm-yard manure, of which 427½ lbs. were recovered in the crop, and 3,567½ lbs. left in the soil. “I see,” said the Deacon, “that barley gets less of the goodness out of farm-yard manure than wheat, but that it gets more out of the salts of ammonia and nitrate of soda. How do you account for that?” “I suppose, because the manure for wheat was applied in the autumn, and the rains of winter and spring dissolved more of the plant-food than would be the case if the manure was applied in the spring. If the manure had been applied on the surface, instead of plowing it under, I believe the effect would have been still more in favor of the autumn-manuring.”