394 Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. [June 2, 1920. 



Classes of Treatment. 

 Broadly speaking, the various merhods of treating crops to increase pro- 

 duction may be divided into three classes : — 



1. Those which are nearly always successful, such as the application of 

 sulphate of ammonia and nitrate of soda to corn* or to grass 

 land for hay ; of superphosphate to swedes i of salt and nitrate of 

 soda to mangolds, &c. 

 '2. Those which apparently succeed in some cases and fail in others 

 3. Those which fail altogether to give crop increases. 

 The use of artificial fertilisers belongs to the first category. 

 Methods of field trials have been devised by which an experimenter can 

 say with comparative certainty whether or not a fertiliser or a mixture of 

 fertilisers will yield an increased crop, given a favourable season. We 

 cannot say this with absolute certainty, but the odds are 25 or 30 to 1 against 

 his being wrong. While, therefore, he may make a mistake in any particular 

 case, he wiJl not make many mistakes in advising, say, 100 farmers. 



It is comparatively easy in a short test to find whether any given process 

 belongs to the first or second category, but it is more ditticult to say whether 

 it belongs to the second or the third. Broadly speaking, the results of the 

 recent tests made at the colleges and experiment stations go to show that the 

 electrolytic treatment of seed does not belong to the first category. In the 

 majority of trials the treatment has had no effect ; in some there have been 

 gains, in others losses. On the whole there has been nothing to indicate 

 with certainty any increase in crop. It does not, however, follow that the 

 process necessarily belongs to category three — the worthless class ; it may 

 still belong to category two. A single positive result in 100 failures would 

 put i,t into this class, but obviously this would require a close examination of 

 all the alleged successes, and — which is equally important — of all the failures, 

 before a definite decision could be given. 



Possible Cause of Successes. 

 Discussing the possible cause of successes. Dr. Russell says: "It 

 may be that the successes are purely accidental ; on the other hand 

 they may be real, and the writer is inclined to think that they are. The 

 process consists of three parts : soaking the seed in a solution of certain salts, 

 subjecting it while still in the solution to an electric current, then drying at 1 10 

 degrees Fah. Now it is well known that kiln-dried barley, especially after 

 steeping, will germinate more evenly and satisfactorily than will ordinary 

 barley. This is particularly the case if the barley contains any amount over 

 14 per cent, or 15 per cent, moisture. Professor Stapledon hhs shown that 

 drying seed at 100 degrees Fah. may impi'ove its germination, unless ger- 

 minati<m is already very good.- Anything that helps germination may be 

 useful on land which has been folded and left in an unfavourable condition. 

 It is possible that the drying in the treatment might be sufficient to help 



• Dr. Russell i.s writing of English exj)erience, and "corn" here means small grain. 



