282 EXPERIMENTAL STATIONS — REPORT FOR 1879. 



of albunienoids is less in turnips grown with dissulved phos- 

 phates, just as the amounts of ash and water are greater. The 

 only other phosphate plots remaining to be noticed are 11 and 

 12. The former received no phosphates, and the latter bone ash 

 alone. In both cases the result has been a great falling off in the 

 amount of the crop, but the crop on plot 12 was the worst. The 

 great want there was nitrogen, for though potash was also with- 

 held, it will be seen by reference to plots 21 and 22 that the 

 want of potash was very little felt, and that the sole application 

 of i^otash produced a very poor crop at Harelaw, and the worst 

 crop on the station at Pumpherston. 



We come now to consider the results obtained by the applica- 

 tion of the various forms of nitrogenous manures. Nitrate of 

 ■soda and sulphate of ammonia (plots 13 and 1-4) are seen to be 

 nearly equally effective ; the small differences which do exist at 

 both stations are neither well-marked nor regular, and it will be 

 some time before anything definite will be determined from the 

 cropping of these two plots. The land at Harelaw is in high 

 oondition, and in consequence the small application of nitrogenous 

 manures has produced scarcely any appreciable effect, plot 17, 

 which got no nitrogen, being quite as productive as the others of 

 the nitrogen series. At I'umpherston the case is different. The 

 want of nitrogen is there clearly shown by the failure of the crop 

 on plot 17, and the still more marked failure of the neighbouring 

 plot (15), which received shoddy, shows that tlie nitrogen in that 

 manure had not come into operation during the growth of the 

 turnip crop. 



The rest of the plots at Pumpherston were so much damaged 

 by the severity of the weather that the amounts obtained on 

 them cannot be compared with those obtained on the other plots 

 which were lifted about two months earlier ; and, owing to the 

 unequal manner in which the frost affected various plots, and 

 various parts of them, they cannot even be compared with each 

 other except to a limited extent. 



At both stations the crop taken from plot 24 was a small one. 

 rish guano labours under the disadvantage of containing a certahi 

 amount of oil, which protects the decomposition of the manure. 

 The guano here used was dissolved only to a slight extent, so as 

 to make it compare with Peruvian guano. It is probable that, 

 had it been more thoroughly dissolved, fatty matter would have 

 been decomposed, and the action would have been more rapid. 



Plot 27, which received no manure, has produced a crop wdiich 

 is not quite the smallest, although it is second lowest on both 

 stations. The results of the superphosphate experiments are not 

 quite satisfactory — the only point in which the two stations 

 agree is in yielding the largest amount of solid matter per acre 

 hi the plot which received the su})erph()sphate with 20 per cent 



