ls per acre, or 3-1/2 bushels more than the
plot which has now received 70 tons of barn-yard manure in five
successive years.

"I see that, on plot 0," said the Deacon, "one ton of superphosphate was
used per acre, and it gave only half a bushel per acre more than 350
lbs. on 9_a_."

"This proves," said I, "that an excessive dose of superphosphate will do
no harm. I am not sure that 100 lbs. of a good superphosphate _drilled
in with the seed_, would not have done _as much good_ as a ton per
acre."

"You say," remarked the Deacon, "that the season was unfavorable for
wheat. And yet the no-manure plot produced nearly 15 bushels of wheat
per acre."

"That is all true," said I, "and yet the season was undoubtedly an
unfavorable one. This is shown not only in the less yield, but in the
inferior quality of the grain. The 'dressed corn' on the no-manure plot
this year only weighed 57-1/3 lbs. per bushel, while last year it
weighed 61 lbs. per bushel."

"By the way," said the Doctor, "what do Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert mean
by 'dressed corn'?"

"By 'corn,'" said I, "they mean wheat; and by 'dressed corn' they mean
wheat that has been run through a fanning-mill until all the light and
shrunken grain is blown or sieved out. In other words, 'dressed corn' is
wheat carefully cleaned for market. The English farmers take more pains
in cleaning their grain than we do. And this 'dressed corn' was as clean
as a good fanning-mill could make it. You will observe that there was
more 'offal corn' this year than last. This also indicates an
unfavorable season."

"It would have been very interesting," said the Doctor, "if Messrs.
Lawes and Gilbert had analyzed the wheat produced by the different
manures, so that we might have known something in regard to the quality
of the flour as influenced by the use of different fertilizers."

"They did that very thing," said I, "and not only that, but they made
the wheat grown on different plots, into flour, and ascertained the
yield of flour from a given weight of wheat, and the amount of bran,
middlings, etc., etc. They obtained some very interesting and important
results. I was there at the time. But this is not the place to discuss
the question. I am often amused, however, at the remarks we often hear
in regard to the inferior quality of our wheat as compared to what it
was when the country was new. Many seem to think that 'there is
something lacking in the soil'--some say potash, and some