made, in the first
instance, but in a long exposure to the atmosphere, the soda
attracts carbonic acid, and is liberated from the silex, and this
has disappointed my expectation more than once.

Again, though I consider it desirable to defer the application of
soluble silicates until vegetation has made a fair start in the
spring, yet in one instance I delayed the application of it so
long that there was not moisture to dissolve it until the end of
June, and then the plant began to send up suckers from the roots,
and the crop was seriously injured by it; but this was in an
exceedingly dry spring, and may not happen again for many years.

* * * * *

CLITHEROE, _March 7th_, 1848.

In continuing my attempts to grow wheat on the same land year
after year, I observed that the crop of 1845 was very seriously
injured by the deficient drainage--the old drains having been
destroyed by the subsoil plough. It was therefore necessary to
replace them; they were accordingly put in four feet deep. This
took up so much time, that the season for sowing wheat had gone
by, and the ground was cropped with potatoes, which were dug up in
September, and the wheat might have been got in early in October;
but seeing in your paper that sowing too early was not advisable,
and also being carried away by the arguments of the thin-seeders,
I deferred sowing until the middle of November, and also put in
little seed, and the weather proving very unfavourable when the
wheat was coming up, there was not half plant enough in the
spring, and I hesitated whether to plough up the ground or to
drill in barley. I determined to do the latter. It was put in on
the 18th April, and wheat and barley grew up together, and when
cut and threshed, it yielded 48 bushels to the acre.

* * * * *

ON THE GRAVELLING OF CLAY SOILS.

There is an old story of a man, who, having a very stony field,
determined to experiment on the value of these stones in the
growth of his crops.

With this view he divided his field into three equal parts. From
No. 1 he gathered all the stones, which he spread upon No. 3,
leaving No. 2 in its original condition. He then sowed barley over
the whole field, and carefully noted the results. The story ends
by saying that No. 1 bore a miserably poor crop, No. 2 a tolerable
one, and No. 3 a splendid one.

I quote this story as a text on which I wish to speak as to the
advantage of gravelling heavy clay soils. Some weeks since I spent
a