EXPERIMENTAL STATIONS — KEPOKT FOR 1880. 355 



phosphates and also the want of nitrogen resulted in a short 

 crop. In the latter case the deficiency was most apparent, and 

 showed itself most conspicuously in the diminished produce of 

 straw. These plots show us that we have to deal here with a 

 soil that is rich in potash, poor in phosphates, and especially 

 poor in available nitrogenous plant food. Indeed, these plots 

 may be called analytical ])lots, for they furnish us with a prac- 

 tical agricultural analysis of the soil, which is far more useful 

 and reliable than a chemical analysis. It is not the actual 

 amounts of phosphoric acid, potash, and nitrogenous matter 

 contained in a soil that a farmer requires to know, a chemist can 

 tell him that ; but what lie wants to know is the amounts of 

 these constituents in his soil which are at present available for 

 his crops, and that is what no chemist can accurately tell him. 

 There may be abundance of these constituents in the soil, in a 

 form in which the plant cannot take them. The power of the 

 roots of plants to absorb the nutriment contained in the soil is 

 limited and peculiar, varying greatly with different kinds of 

 plants, and there is no chemical process that can imitate the 

 absorptive power of the root. The practical test is the only 

 reliable one, and the farmer by making use of it, as in the plots 

 we have just noticed, can make the plant his analyst. The 

 form adopted on the above-mentioned plots is not the best for 

 practical purposes. A more convenient method would be to 

 make a five--plot test, requiring only three manurings, in the 

 following manner. Select five adjacent ridges in the middle of 

 a field, numbered from 1 to 5. To plots 1, 2, and 3 apply super- 

 phosphate, 3 cwts. per acre ; to plots 2, 3, and 4 apply mixed 

 muriate and sulphate of potash, 1 cwt. per acre ; and to plots 3, 

 4, and 5 apply sulphate of ammonia, 1 cwt. per acre. By this 

 arrangement plot 1 will have phosphates alone ; plot 2, phos- 

 phates and potasli ; plot 3, phosphates, potash, and ammonia ; 

 I)lot 4, potash and ammonia ; and plot 5, ammonia alone. Tlie 

 relative yield on these five plots would indicate in a most 

 reliable manner what kind of manure it will be most profitable 

 to apply, and also in what proportion to apjjly it. If a five-plot 

 test, such as is here indicated, were applied to every field on the 

 farm early in course of the lease, an enormous amount of money 

 would be saved to farmers, for there is no doubt that one of the 

 most serious sources of loss to farmers now-a-days is the misap- 

 ])lication of manures. Great efforts have in recent years been 

 made to secure farmers against loss from the application of bad 

 manures, but the loss sustained from that cause is now trifling 

 in comparison with that incurred from the misapplication of 

 good manures. 



AVe come now to consider the barley crop at Harelaw station. 

 As noticed in the former report, it was not manured, so that any 



