CEREALS AND PULSE CROPS 1 275 



the 3'oung wheat with the object of preventing and combating this danger, 

 and at the same time contributing to the soil a substance capable of produc- 

 ing a fertilising action for subsequent crops. Probably the useful action 

 of sulphur in the soil is an indirect one, in which the sulphur, by modifying 

 the microflora and microf auna of the soil, renders the latter more fertile. 



As a result of these considerations, the writer proposed to the " Societa 

 degli Agricoltori italiani " in Rome to organise co-operative experiments 

 in the spring of 1916, on plots of 50, 120 or 240 sq. yds., chosen in the wheat 

 fields where there is most reason to apprehend lodging and its consequences, 

 in order that farmers might form an exact opinion about the measures pro- 

 posed for the prevention and mitigation of the injuries due to lodging of 

 cereals. The experiments were to be organised as follows : 



I. — Experiment IN THE use of acidified human urine, applied at 

 THE RATE OF 220 GALLONS PER ACRE. — The Urine will be prepared b}'- collect- 

 ing it in carboys or vats tarred inside, in which concentrated sulphuric 

 acid is mixed with the urine in a quantity corresponding to 6 pints of acid 

 per 100 pints of undiluted natural fresh urine. The mixture will occasion- 

 ally be stirred. up in order that the entire mass of the liquid may be acid- 

 ified, and to prevent any fermentation. The spraying (which in small ex- 

 periments, may be made by brush application) will be carried out in the spots 

 where the wheat is ver^- high, particularly where weeding has not been suc- 

 cessful in sufficiently preventing weed growth. In case of need, where 

 wheat suffers greatly from want of light, the treatment ma}' be repeated 

 a second time of an interval of one week or more, but before the wheat emer- 

 ges from the glumes. For the second treatment, the acified urine might 

 be diluted with an equal volume of water. 



II. — Experiments in treating whe.\t with flowers of sulphur. 

 — Flowers of sulphur (sublimated flowers of best quality') being more read- 

 il}'' oxidisable by the slow action of the air and light, should be preferred 

 to sulphur which has been first melted and then ground. Treatment with 

 sulphur should be tried in those places where the wheat stalks are crowded, 

 in moist localities, particularly when the bases of the culms are seen to ex- 

 hibit a tendency to blacken. The amount applied should be 178 lbs. per 

 acre. This application must be repeated in case of lodging of the wheat, 

 and more especially if a progressive invasion of fungi is observed. As 

 in the case of the vine, the treatment must be carried out in hot and clear 

 weather, with no wind. When the wheat is flowering treatment with sul- 

 phur would be out of place, but it can be done before or after. The wheat 

 crop having been got in and weighed, it should be ascertained whether the 

 treatment has rendered the soil more fertile for the crop next in rotation. 



970 -Action of Ammoniacal Salts on the Growth of Barley. — Soderbaum h. <;., in 



Kittigl. Landtbruks-Akadcmuns Handlitt'^ar ndi 7 idskrifl, l,yth Year, Sos. 1-2, pp. .S7-66. 

 Stockholni, i()i6. 



Ammoniacal salts applied to soil under grass or grain crops, and manur- 

 ed with phosphates of low solubility (bone meal, tricalcic phosphate or 

 phosphorites) give better results than sodium nitrate. Barley is an excep- 

 tion to this rule as it seems to take more readily to nitrates. A special 



