418 



PRACTICAL METHOD OF TESTIXO SOILS. 



locality of the experiments as much as possible. I still hope 

 that many may be found willing to co-operate in this matter, and 

 desirous of using the means afforded by the seven-plot test of 

 informing themselves regarding the manurial wants of their 

 land. The method of making this test is very simple, and the 

 cost is a mere trifle. What is required is that he who uses the 

 test should be interested in the matter, and either give it his 

 personal attention or secure that it is undertaken by some one 

 wiio is thoroughly to be depended on, for if it is not correctly 

 done the inferences drawn from the results will be misleading, 

 and if acted on may involve loss. The work has to be gone 

 about in the following manner : — 



Directions for Making the Plots. 



Choose seven ridges, ordinary 18 feet wide ridges, on a uniform 

 part of the field, and number them 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Drive in 

 a stake at 1 and 7, so as to mark the place well. Measure 40 

 yards down ridges 1 and 7, and put in other two stakes, and draw 

 a line between them, as in the following diagram : — 



20 yards. < 



i: 

 r 



20 yards, •{ 



I 

 I 



>40 yards. 



3 



6 



Plots so made are each about one-twentieth of an acre. 



Divide plots 1, 2, 3, and 4 into two equal parts, A and B, 

 put in stakes at m and n, and draw a line betw^een them. 



The ground is now ready for the manures. 



Plots 1, 2, 3, and 4 are divided in two, for the purpose of 

 testing the two forms of phosphate, soluble and insoluble. The 

 one half, A, receives mineral phosphate (say Charleston phos- 

 phate), ground down to the finest flour, at the rate of 3-J cwt. 

 per acre. The other half, B, receives an equal money value of 

 superphosphate (about 28 per cent, soluble). That will pro- 

 bably be a little over 5 cwt. per acre. 



The only other manures are sulphate of ammonia and sul- 

 phate of potash. 



The exact quantities of the ingredients applied to the various 

 plots and half plots will be as follows : — 



