nmanured, gives about 16 bushels of wheat per
acre.

The plot with barn-yard manure, nearly 30 bushels per acre.

400 lbs. of ammonia-salts _alone_, on plot 9_a_, 31-1/4 bushels; on
9_b_, 29 bushels; on 10_a_ and 10_b_, nearly 29 bushels each. This is
remarkable uniformity.

400 lbs. ammonia-salts and a large quantity of mineral manures in
addition, on _twelve_ different plots, average not quite 32 bushels per
acre.

"The superphosphate and minerals," said the Deacon, "do not seem to do
much good, that is a fact."

You will notice that 336 lbs. of common salt was sown on plot 16_a_. It
does not seem to have done the slightest good. Where the salt was used,
there is 2 lbs. less grain and 98 lbs. less straw than on the adjoining
plot 16_b_, where no salt was used, but otherwise manured alike. It
would seem, however, that the quality of the grain was slightly improved
by the salt. The salt was sown in March as a top-dressing.

"It would have been better," said the Deacon. "to have sown it in autumn
with the other manures."

"The Deacon is right," said I, "but it so happens that the next year and
the year after, the salt _was_ applied at the same time as the other
manures. It gave an increase of 94 lbs. of grain and 61 lbs. of straw in
1851, but the following year the same quantity of salt used on the same
plot did more harm than good."

Before we leave the results of this year, it should be observed that on
8_a_, 5,000 lbs. of cut straw and chaff were used per acre. I do not
recollect seeing anything in regard to it. And yet the result was very
remarkable--so much so indeed, that it is a matter of regret that the
experiment was not repeated.

This 5,000 lbs. of straw and chaff gave an increase of more than 10
bushels per acre over the continuously unmanured plot.

"Good," said the Deacon, "I have always told you that you
under-estimated the value of straw, especially in regard to its
_mechanical_ action."

I did not reply to this remark of the good Deacon. I have never doubted
the good effects of anything that lightens up a clay soil and renders it
warmer and more porous. I suppose the great benefit derived from this
application of straw must be attributed to its ameliorating action on
the soil. The 5,000 lbs. of straw and chaff produced a crop within
nearly 3 bushels per acre of the plot manured every year with 14 tons
of barn-yard manure.

"I am surprised," said the Doctor, "that salt did no good. I have