Two Yems' Work in the Chemical Branch. 11 



A Study of the Tables. 



The I'esults of these tables are particularly gratifying to me. 

 Besides confirming, in almost every particular, the returns of the 

 former year, they have widened our field of information, and given us 

 a crop of new facts of great practical value. In a year marked hv 

 such a low general average, it is refreshing to turn to results showing 

 so great an improvement. The manures used up to Plot 10 are the 

 same in kind as the preceding year. They differ very slightly, 

 however, in the quantity used. In Plot 12, nitrogen, instead of being 

 given in the form of sulphate of ammonia, as it was in the preceding 

 year, has been given in the slower acting form of dried blood. A 

 comparison of the yields of the various plots for the two years will 

 show that the figures of the first year are slightly higher than in the 

 second. In the increase due to manures, however, the last year's 

 results show an advantage. A comparison of the retmms of Plots 10 

 and 12, where nitrogen and phosphoric acid have been applied, with 

 those of Plot G, where phosphoric acid only has been given, will show 

 that in Plots 10 and 6 the increased yields are practically the same — ^a 

 confirmation of last year's experiments, while in Plot 12 the yield is 

 higher by half-a-bushel than in Plot 6, a result which might lead us to 

 infer that nitrogen in the slower acting form of dried blood had shown 

 itself effective. But dried blood also contains a small percentage of 

 phosphoric acid, enough probably, in the 87^ lbs. applied on this plot 

 to ])roduce, at any rate, half the additional increase shown on the plot, 

 and part of the increase, at any rate, can be attributed to that cause. 

 The cost of the dressing on Plot 12 is, comparatively speaking, a 

 heavy one — 7s. O^d. per acre — and the small increase produced by the 

 blood would not justify such an expenditure. Thei'e is little doubt, 

 looking at the average increases of the^94 fields, of the dominant influence 

 of the action of phoshoric acid in the form of the superphosphate ; 

 22 lbs. of concentrated in Plot 3, costing 2s. 8d. per acre, has given 

 an increase of 5'10 bushels ; 51 lbs. df ordinary superphosphate, con- 

 taining the same amount of phos])h(iric acid, but costing only 2s. 2d., 

 gives practically the same increase, •■>"02 bushels — a most beautiful 

 illustration of careful regular working. 54 pounds of Thomas 

 phosphate, however, also containing the same amount of phosphoric 

 acid, and costing the same money, results in an increase of :3*35 bushels 

 only ; and 46 lbs. of bone dust, costing 2s. O^d. and containing the 

 same amount of phosphoric acid, gives only an increase of 1'21 bushels. 

 After such results obtained by two years' tests over such a wide area, 

 the fact of the great hunger of the soils in that area for phosphoric 

 acid is made strikingly clear. The figures also make clear that the 

 superphosphate is the most suitable form in which to apply that 

 element, and that the matter of nitrogen manuring requires, for the 

 present at any rate, no consideration. 



The Requirements of the Northern Soils in Potash. 



But there was still the possible necessity of pcttash and lime in our 

 northern soils to be considered. In the first year's experiments no 



