ich differ
from each other in colour, quality, yield, and comparative value
in the various districts in which they are grown.
Fully sensible of my inability to do justice to this important
subject, I yet hope (if you do me the honour to publish my letter)
that my remarks may induce scientific men to consider it; for it
appears unaccountable to me that hitherto they seem to have
thought it unworthy of their attention.
P.S.--There is still time to try the experiment during the present
season. If any gentleman wishes to try the short-strawed Chilian
wheat, I shall be glad to give him a sample of it for the purpose
of cross-breeding. Samples were sent to Mr. H. Briggs, Mr.
Raynbird, and Mr. Stevenson, Stockport.
* * * * *
_January 27th_, 1848.
To the Editor of the "Agricultural Gazette."
You invite persons who have grown good crops of grain or turnips
to forward you the particulars. I therefore enclose you an account
of an attempt which I made to grow wheat on the same land year
after year, that account reaching to the fourth white crop in
1844. As I still continue the experiment, I shall be in a position
to continue the account up to the present time (as I am now
threshing out the last year's crop), and will send it to you if
you think it worthy of insertion in the "Agricultural Gazette."
If the account I now send is not worth inserting, please to send
it to your correspondent A. W., who doubted whether there were
authenticated instances of land producing eighty, seventy, or even
fifty bushels to the acre.
I attribute my success in growing wheat to the use of silicate of
soda, and yet, singularly enough, until now I have been unable to
induce anyone else to try it. This season, however, several
persons have applied to me to procure it for them. Among them is
the talented editor of the "Liverpool Times," whose farm at Barton
Moss shows what good management will accomplish on very
unpromising soils. If, as I hope will be the case, the silicate of
soda should supply to peat its greatest deficiency, no one will
more readily discover it than Mr. Baines.
In the use of silicates of soda and potash, one precaution is very
necessary, namely, that you really have a soluble silicate, not a
mere mechanical mixture of ground flint and alkali. This is a very
different thing, and one which, if it be not carefully guarded
against, will lead to nothing but disappointment.
Again, the silicate of soda may be properly
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