LIME AND VARIOUS ARTIFICIAL MANURES. 109 



midsummer a marked difference is quite visible between the 

 healthy green plants of the limed grass and the sickly appearance 

 of those without. The second year's grass also comes away close 

 and thick, and the oat crop which follows shows the same healthy 

 symptoms. But applying the compost to second year's grass early 

 in spring gives the best result in the following oat crop, if applied 

 in the same manner as already described. I have noticed a 

 difference of at least eight or ten bushels per acre between the 

 limed and unlimed portions. It is only on my light moory soils, 

 where grass was inclined to thin out in spring, that this method 

 has proved most profitable to me. On other classes of soil the 

 first method is decidedly preferable. The third method does not 

 appear to do much good to the cereal crop it is applied to. It 

 tells well, however, on the grass crop which follows, but not equal 

 to the compost application I have already described, while it 

 labours under the disadvantage of IsTo. I. in a twofold degree. The 

 grass seeds are necessarily sown with the cereal crop to which it 

 is applied, and if not very carefully spread, which is rather 

 difficult to do, it is apt to burn out spots both of the grain and the 

 grass. The fourth and the fifth methods of ploughing in either 

 lime or compost I have found much inferior to any of the others 

 mentioned. They show very little indeed in the cereal crop to 

 which they are applied, and even not much in the succeeding 

 grass crop until midsummer. They are inferior to any of the 

 other ways with respect to the second year's grass and the lea 

 oats, but show certainly an improvement in the lea oats, com- 

 pared with non-limed portions. The order of merit as given is 

 the result of careful experiments and comparisons, extending over 

 eight years, in some of which I have applied nearly 200 tons of 

 lime in all the various ways mentioned. 



Oats after Grass. — The quality of my soil necessitates the use 

 of some stimulant for this crop, if one is to grow a fair return as 

 the result of liis labour, to leave a sufficient margin of profit to 

 meet the rent and pay working expenses. To grow an inferior 

 crop simply means loss. The variableness of the soil in all my 

 fields renders it very difficult to arrive at a correct estimate of the 

 difference between the various artificial manures as applied to the 

 crop. I have been experimenting, however, with various manures, 

 and mixtures of them, for the past ten years, and shall endeavour 

 to give the results of my experiments as closely as I can. I may 

 mention that I have always made a point of having all manures 

 used by me analysed from bulk immediately after dehvery. All 

 the analyses to be referred to in this report are as ascertained by 

 my own chemist. I could calculate therefore on the articles used 

 as being what they were represented to be. As this report would 

 be too much lengthened were I to go over aU the experiments, I 

 will place the manures, or mixtures of them, in order of merit in 



