EXPERIMENTAL STATIONS. 201 



certain that some of these add more than others to the real value 

 of the manure or the permanent improvement of the land. For 

 example, phosphatic manures, which have been partly dissolved 

 with sulphuric acid, are found usually to have the immediate 

 effect of improving the crop to which they are applied; accordingly 

 a higher price is given for dissolved phosphates than for un- 

 dissolved, and if one were to limit his attention to the crop 

 immediately succeeding the application of the dissolved phos- 

 phate, its superiority over crops w^hich had received undissolved 

 phosphate would make it appear that the former was much 

 better value than the latter. But, in order to arrive at a true 

 estimate of the value of any manure, we must look to its remote 

 as well as to its immediate action. 



This is a matter which in ordinary cultivation is very apt to 

 be lost sight of ; for farmers, who are farming for profit, necessarily 

 vary the manurial treatment of their land with the kind of crop, 

 with the season, and with the prices of the various manures in 

 the market. They cannot afford to experiment on the large 

 scale, lest failure should be the result, nor on the small scale, as 

 that interferes too much with the more important working of 

 the farm, and demands an amount of care entirely disproporr 

 tionate to the profit accruing from it, and, moreover, also requires 

 an amount of knowledge and scientific accuracy which only 

 those specially trained have at their command. The result is 

 that lands are manured in such a complex manner that the 

 specific action of the various kinds of manure cannot be 

 estimated, or if manured in a simple manner, there are wanting 

 the means of comparing such lands with similar land which 

 has been differently treated. 



It is not surprising, therefore, that a good deal of misconcep- 

 tion should prevail regarding the real value of the many kinds 

 of manure which are now in common use among our farmers, 

 and that large sums of money should be spent annually by farmers 

 in the purchase of some kinds of manure which might have 

 been more profitably spent upon others. The amount of money 

 now spent on manure is so enormous that any knowledge which 

 will conduce to their more profitable employment will be a 

 real boon to farmers and manufacturers. To supply some 

 reliable information of that kind is the main object for which 

 the present series of experiments at Harelaw and Pumpher- 

 ston were instituted, and the means which have been adopted 

 towards that end are such as appear to those intrusted with the 

 inquiry to be the best which the funds at their disposal enable 

 them to employ. 



In carrying out a series of agricultural experiments, there are 

 many difficulties to be encountered, regarding some of which a 

 few remarks should be made, since the value of an inquiry 



