hich continued so long in the
spring (of 1845) were also unfavourable, yet with all these
drawbacks the appearance of the plant after the growing weather
_did_ come, was very promising, and many of my friends predicted
that I should have as good a crop as in 1844. On the 24th March I
applied chemical manure of the same kind as I had done in 1844, at
the rate of about 3 1/4 cwt. to the acre (costing 23s. 6d.), and a
fortnight after I had it sowed with 2 cwt. of guano to the acre.
When the warm weather came, these manurings seemed to help it
wonderfully, and it was, as I have before stated, a very promising
crop; but the cold, ungenial weather we had through a great part
of the summer, and the continued rain we had whilst the wheat was
in flower, destroyed all the former promise: and the manuring with
guano, so far from being beneficial, was very injurious--so much
so, that I believe every shilling's-worth of it applied to my
wheat this year, made the crop a shilling worse than if nothing
had been applied; and all ammoniacal manures had the same effect.
It may be asked how I know it was the guano, and not the chemical
manure. In answer to this inquiry, if made, I may observe, that I
supplied two of my neighbours with the chemical manure, and they
applied it without guano on very poor land, and they both assert
they had never such good crops of wheat before; but everywhere in
this neighbourhood, the only good samples of wheat that I saw or
heard of were grown on exhausted soil. This appears to me to be a
strong proof that chemistry has a great deal to learn before it
can adapt its measures to all varieties of seasons, particularly
as it cannot know beforehand how the season may turn out. If
further proof be required of the injurious effect upon grain crops
of ammoniacal manures in general, and of guano in particular, I
may mention that in another field of wheat, sowed on the 21st
December, and which did not come up until the frost broke, in
March (the previous crop having been Swedes), the blade was so
yellow and the plant altogether so small and sickly in appearance,
that I had it manured with a water-cart from a cesspool in April.
This appeared to produce a wonderful improvement immediately, as
the plant assumed a deep green and grew very fast, but when it
ought to have shot, the heads seemed to stick in the sockets, the
blade and straw became mildewed and made no progress in ripening.
It was not fit to cut for three we