LIME AND VARIOUS ARTIFICIAL MANURES. Ill 



So tliorouglily do I believe that artificial manure with oats pays, 

 that I have ceased during the past two years to keep an 

 unmanurcd plot. Some of my neighbour's fields, however, 

 immediately adjoining mine, which had been sown withoutmanure, 

 were very much cut up with grub. I do not mean to infer that 

 a liberal use of nitrogenous and phosphatic compounds will 

 entirely prevent the ravages of grub, but it will go a very far way 

 to do so. I could with no certainty state the exact difference in 

 luishels on an average of seasons, of the crops grown by the 

 various manures and mixtures of them I have enumerated, but 

 will endeavour to give a general idea of the effects they have had 

 on the crop. 



The mixture No. I. has always given me the best results, both 

 for straw and grain. It has been equalled once or twice by the 

 results of mixture ISTo. II., but never excelled. 



The mixture No. II. makes the crop come away as well at first 

 as No. I., but it does not generally stand out quite so satisfac- 

 torily towards harvest, and as a rule has given less bulk of straw. 

 If sulphate of ammonia and Peru%dan guano were equal in value 

 so far as regards a source of ammonia, I would decidedly prefer 

 sulphate of ammonia to guano, as being a more uniform and 

 trustworthy source, and not so liable to waste as guano. 



The mixture No. III. has given results something similar to 

 No. II., but after a wet spring it apparently does not stand out 

 so well during summer, especially if the season is a dry one. 



No. IV. (Peru\dan guano) brings away the crop, to start with, 

 best of any of the manures in the list, and may on heavy clay 

 soils be the best manure to use ; still on my free and light muirish 

 soil it has always inclined to grow the straw shorter and softer, 

 and in bad weather, when the grain is shooting into ear, that 

 grown by the guano would fall down, while that grown by any of 

 the other mixtures, though quite as tall, would stand firm and 

 strong. When threshed out, the latter would give a better yield, 

 with fewer seconds, and 2 lbs. a bushel more weight than what 

 was grown with the guano. I have given guano a more extended 

 trial than any of the other mixtures named, and have come to the 

 conclusion that its proper place is fourth in order of merit; 

 although in firmer soils, containing a larger percentage of alumina 

 and phosphoric acid, it may be used with advantage, and in pre- 

 ference to any other artificial manure. 



The mixture No. V. (nitrate of soda, dissolved bones, and 

 superphosphate). Unless the last two named manures are in a 

 very fine dry condition, it is better to apply them with the seed, 

 and to apply the nitrate of soda separately, about a fortnight after, 

 when the grain has begun to show alcove ground. If the latter 

 is mixed up with the phosphatic manures in a raw condition, the 

 free acid combines with the nitrate and forms sulphate of soda 



