| |
5783 | 6384 }|7028|1974| 9002| 12
4775 | 4130 |2996|1316| 4312| 13
| | | | |
5468 | 4816 |3766|1960| 5726| 14
---------+----------+----+----+------+----

These are all the figures I will trouble you with. The "mixed mineral
manures" consisted of superphosphate of lime (composed of 150 lbs.
bone-ash and 150 lbs. sulphuric acid, sp. gr. 1.7), 300 lbs. sulphate of
potash, 200 lbs. sulphate of soda, and 100 lbs. sulphate of magnesia.
The ammonia-salts consisted of equal parts sulphate and muriate of
ammonia, containing about 25 per cent. of ammonia. The manures were sown
as early as possible in the spring, and, if the weather was suitable,
sometimes in February. The farmyard-manure was spread on the land, in
the first year, in the spring, afterwards in November or December. The
hay was cut from the middle to the last of June; and the aftermath was
pastured off by sheep in October.

"It is curious," said the Deacon, "that 400 lbs. of ammonia-salts should
give as great an increase in the yield of hay the first year as 14 tons
of farmyard-manure, but the second year the farmyard-manure comes out
decidedly ahead."

"The farmyard-manure," said I, "was applied every year, at the rate of
14 gross tons per acre, for eight years--1856 to 1863. After 1863, this
plot was left without manure of any kind. The average yield of this
plot, during the first 8 years was 4,800 lbs. of hay per acre."

On the plot dressed with 14 tons of farmyard-manure and 200 lbs.
ammonia-salts, the average yield of hay for 8 years was 5,544 lbs. per
acre. After the eighth year the farmyard-manure was discontinued, and
during the next twelve years the yield of hay averaged 3,683 lbs., or
1,149 lbs. more than the continuously unmanured plot.

In 1859, superphosphate of lime was used alone on plot 3, and has been
continued ever since. It seems clear that this land, which had been in
pasture or meadow for a hundred years or more, was not deficient in
phosphates.

"It does not seem," said the Deacon, "to have been deficient in
anything. The twentieth crop, on the continuously unmanured plot was
nearly 1-1/4 ton per acre, the first cutting, and nearly 3/4-ton the
second cutting. And apparently the land was just as rich in 1875, as it
was in 1856, and yet over 25 tons of hay had been cut and _removed_ from
the land, without any manure being returned. And yet we are told that
hay i