ut five or six inches deep, but
with a bed of solid frozen earth beneath.

3d. Two-rowed barley does not ripen as early as winter wheat, but our
ordinary six-rowed barley is ready to harvest the same time as our
winter wheat.

4th. We sow our barley usually in May, and harvest it in July. The
barley, therefore, has to take up its food rapidly. If we expect a good
growth, we must provide a good supply of food, and have it in the proper
condition for the roots to reach it and absorb it; in other words, the
land must be not only rich, but it must be so well worked that the roots
can spread out easily and rapidly in search of food and water. In this
country, you will find ten good wheat-growers to one good barley grower.

"That is so," said the Deacon; "but tell us about Mr. Lawes'
experiments. I have more confidence in them than in your speculations.
And first of all what kind of land was the barley grown on?"

"It is," said I, "rather heavy land--as heavy as what the men call
'clay-spots,' on my farm."

"And on those clay-spots," said the Deacon, "you either get very good
barley, or a crop not worth harvesting."

"You have hit it exactly, Deacon," said I. "The best barley I have this
year (1878) is on these clay-spots. And the reason is, that we gave them
an extra plowing last fall with a three-horse plow. That extra plowing
has probably given me an extra 30 bushels of barley per acre. The barley
on some of the lighter portions of the field will not yield over 25
bushels per acre. On the clay-spots, it looks now (June 13) as though
there would be over 50 bushels per acre. It is all headed out handsomely
on the clay-spots, and has a strong, dark, luxuriant appearance, while
on the sand, the crop is later and has a yellow, sickly look."

"You ought," said the Doctor, "to have top-dressed these poor, sandy
parts of the field with a little superphosphate and nitrate of soda."

"It would have paid wonderfully well," said I, "or, perhaps, more
correctly speaking, the loss would have been considerably less. We have
recently been advised by a distinguished writer, to apply manure to our
best land, and let the poor land take care of itself. But where the poor
land is in the same field with the good, we are obliged to plow, harrow,
cultivate, sow, and harvest the poor spots, and the question is, whether
we shall make them capable of producing a good crop by the application
of manure, or be at all the labor and expense of pu