2.

The soil is of the same general character as that in the field on the
same farm where wheat was grown annually for so many years, and of which
we have given such a full account. It is what we should call a
calcareous clay loam. On my farm, we have what the men used to call
"clay spots." These spots vary in size from two acres down to the tenth
of an acre. They rarely produced even a fair crop of corn or potatoes,
and the barley was seldom worth harvesting. Since I have drained the
land and taken special pains to bestow extra care in plowing and working
these hard and intractable portions of the fields, the "clay spots" have
disappeared, and are now nothing more than good, rather stiff, clay
loam, admirably adapted for wheat, barley, and oats, and capable of
producing good crops of corn, potatoes, and mangel-wurzels.

The land on which Mr. Lawes' wheat and barley experiments were made is
not dissimilar in general character from these "clay spots." If the land
was only half-worked, we should call it clay; but being thoroughly
cultivated, it is a good clay loam. Mr. Lawes describes it as "a
somewhat heavy loam, with a subsoil of raw, yellowish red clay, but
resting in its turn upon chalk, which provides good natural drainage."

The part of the field devoted to the experiments was divided into 24
plots, about the fifth of an acre each.

Two plots were left without manure of any kind.

One plot was manured every year with 14 tons per acre of farm-yard
manure, and the other plots "with manures," to quote Dr. Gilbert
"which respectively supplied certain constituents of farm-yard manure,
separately or in combination."

In England, the best barley soils are usually lighter than the best
wheat soils. This is probably due to the fact that barley usually
follows a crop of turnips--more or less of which are eaten off on the
land by sheep. The trampling of the sheep compresses the soil, and makes
even a light, sandy one firmer in texture.

In this country, our best wheat land is also our best barley land,
_provided_ it is in good heart, and is very thoroughly worked. It is no
use sowing barley on heavy land half worked. It will do better on light
soils; but if the clayey soils are made fine and mellow, they produce
with us the best barley.

In chemical composition, barley is quite similar to wheat. Mr. Lawes and
Dr. Gilbert give the composition of a wheat-crop of 30 bushels per acre,
1,800 lbs. of grain, and 3,000 lbs. o