g. I
feel convinced that such result would be against the use of guano
for wheat in 1845. I am the more confirmed in the opinion that
ammoniacal manures are unfavourable for wheat, by a series of
articles in the "Gardener's Chronicle" on the "Geo-Agriculture of
Middlesex," in which the writer states that land in that county
which in Queen Elizabeth's time produced such good wheat that it
was reserved for her especial use, will now scarcely grow wheat at
all, and when that grain is sowed upon it, the straw is always
mildewed, and the sample very poor; and this is attributed--and no
doubt justly so--to the extensive use of London manure. My crop
was only 32 bushels to the acre of 60 lbs. to the bushel; last
year the crop, as I have said before, was 50 bushels of the same
weight.

* * * * *

_To the same._

CLITHEROE, _7th March_, 1848.

On continuing my attempts to grow wheat on the same land year
after year, I observed that the crop of 1845 was very seriously
injured by the deficient drainage--the old drains having been
destroyed by the subsoil plough. It was therefore necessary to
replace them: they were accordingly put in four feet deep. This
occupied so much time that the season for sowing wheat had gone
by, and the ground was cropped with potatoes, which were got up in
September, and the wheat might have been got in early in October.
But seeing in your paper that sowing too early was not advisable,
and also being carried away by the arguments of the thin-seeders,
I deferred sowing until the middle of November, and then put in
little seed; and the winter proving very unfavourable, when the
wheat was coming up, there was not half plant enough in the
spring, and I hesitated whether to plough up the ground or drill
in barley. I determined to do the latter, which was done on the
18th April, and wheat and barley grew up together, and when cut
and threshed, proved to be equal to 48 bushels to the acre.

* * * * *

LOW MOOR, _31st December_, 1844.

HENRY BRIGGS, ESQ.

I duly received your obliging letter in reply to my pamphlet on
the growth of wheat year after year on the same land, and now
offer my rejoinder to your remarks. You seem to consider the
expense is too great under the system pursued by me; and that it
was more than was required by the crop, is proved in my opinion by
the fact that the fertility of the land is very much augmented
since the commencement of the experiment in 1841: as my first crop
w