358 EXPERIMENTAL STATIONS — REPORT FOR 1880. 



The experiments have shown that the nitrogenous part of the 

 plant's food is the part that is deficient, and that the bulk of the 

 crop is not nearly so great as the land can carry ; and the 

 inference is plain that in order to obtain heavier crops, and to 

 test more thoroughly the various forms of the other mineral 

 manures, at least 30 lbs. per acre of nitrogen should be applied 

 to the cereals at the stations. 



HoAj Crop, 1880. 



The rood plots at both stations were this year under Italian 

 rye grass, ^vhich was sown w^ith the barley. No manures were 

 applied to the crop, since it was impossible to apply them except 

 as a top dressing. This would have suited well enough with 

 the soluble manures, but would, of course, have been quite use- 

 less with the insoluble ones ; and as a large proportion of the 

 manures used in these experiments are insoluble, the committee 

 thought it preferable to al3andon the manuring for a season. It 

 is customary to apply soluble top dressings, and especially 

 nitrate of soda, to grass ; and had this been done over the whole 

 of the plots on the stations except on those to which nitrates 

 are not applied, it would, doubtless, have increased the weight of 

 the hay crop. Had the obtaining of a heavy remunerative crop 

 been one of the chief objects of the experiments this would have 

 been done, but as the main object of the experiments is to com- 

 pare the efficacy of the various forms of manure, it was evident 

 that the application of nitrates to a selected number of plots 

 would have given them an advantage over the plots to which 

 less soluble nitrogenous manures are applied, and thus have 

 frustrated in some measure the object of the experiments. 

 Moreover, it was thought desirable to withhold manures entirely 

 for a season, in order to note the continued effect of former 

 manurings upon the quantity and quality of the hay crop. As it 

 happened, there was good reason to be satisfied that no manure 

 had been applied, for a long drought and the prevalence of frosty 

 east winds, which continued till the middle of July, dried up and 

 barked the soil, whereby light manures were prevented from 

 coming into operation, and were lost to the hay crop, which 

 accordingly was a very short one — the shortest that has occurred 

 in the Lothians during ten years. 



Accordingly, in judging the action of the various manures, it is 

 necessary to remember that no manure had been applied at 

 Pumpherston for one year and at Harelaw for two years. 



The hay was made and brought in in good condition at both 

 stations. At Harelaw a second crop was secured, but at 

 Pumpherston the amount of the second crop was so small that 

 it was not weii_died. 



