it with the
African, and the other with Peruvian, for the sake of comparison;
but as the African did not appear to produce the same stimulating
effect as the other, fifty per cent. more was applied, that the
cost might be equal (the Peruvian cost 10s., the African 7s. per
cwt.); but as the latter application of the African was made when
the wheat was just shooting into ear, the same objection applies
to the experiment which does to the chemical manure applied after
the drought had set in--viz., that there was not sufficient
moisture in the soil to dissolve it thoroughly until the plant was
too far advanced to benefit by it; and therefore its failure would
be no proof of the value of the African as compared with the
Peruvian, which was the object of the experiment. It is true, no
bad effects followed the application similar to those produced by
the misapplication of the chemical manure in dry weather, yet if
soluble salts like the latter did not find sufficient moisture in
the ground when applied in April, there is reason to suppose that
the former would not do so when applied in May. I regret the
failure of the experiment without any manure, as I think the
result would have shown satisfactorily that the land is so far
from being impoverished by this system of cropping, that it is
improving every year. I think, however, that this is shown by the
produce of the land manured with guano alone. In the first year's
experiment the produce from guano alone was 27 bushels per acre,
and both straw and wheat were very indifferent in quality. This
year the produce from guano alone is 42 1/3 bushels; and although
neither straw nor wheat are so good as upon the adjoining lands,
they are both very much better than they were in 1842. It will be
observed that the result from the unsubsoiled portion is very
good, and if nothing more were said about it, people would be led
to conclude that there was no advantage in subsoiling. But this,
in my opinion, would be a great mistake; for to say nothing of the
advantage which the unsubsoiled portion would derive from the
drainage which it received from the subsoiling on each side of it,
I found, when the field was ploughed up this autumn, that whilst
the unsubsoiled portion was stiff and heavy, the subsoiled part
was comparatively friable and loose, like a garden, and will, I
expect, show its superiority in the succeeding crops. It must be
borne in mind, in reading these experiments, that we hav