Tivo Years' Work in the Chemical Branch. 



185 



The original purpose of putting in the New Zealand spinach was to 

 test it as a soil binder, and as a rank growth for green manuring. 

 It serves both purposes admirably. There was not suffi- 

 cient to test it for stock ])urposes, but appearances 

 indicate that it might be valuable for this purjjose also. The j)hoto- 

 graphs, which are little more than half life size, will give some indica- 

 tion of the growth of the three plants. The Natal red toj) was a 

 particularly fine grass, well adapted, apparently, f or hay. The growth 

 of the saltbush has pai'ticularly pleased the local residents, who see 

 in its successful cultivation the possibility of converting the desert 

 into a good grazing area. 



The analyses I have had made of the soils from the Little Desert 

 and Foster will show that they are exceedingly poor. In the case of 

 the Little Desert it is little better than a pure sand. But, providing the 

 moisture conditions are favorable, it is astonishing what might l)e 

 done by suitable treatment on our poorer soils. As an instance, let 

 me call your attention to the analysis of a soil fi"om iSwan Reach. 

 This is fi'om the farm of Mr. Whelan, and is representative of a soil 

 little better than the two alluded U). This soil is, I believe, also typical 

 oi a very large area in (ilippsland considered as of little or no value. The 

 native growth is stringy bark, with a thick undergrowth of bracken 

 fern. The same class of country, 1 am told, extends from the Lakes 

 to Buchan, and fi'om the Tambo to the Snowy River, being some oO 

 miles square and reserved at present as a State forest. 



Analyses of Soils at Foster, Little Desert, and Swan Reach. 



Foster 

 • Little Desert 

 Swan Reach 



Nitrogen 



120 



48 



143 



Phosphoric p^^^gj^ 

 Acid. 



20 



3« 



48 



8 



47 



Lime. 



19 

 30 



284 



Chlorine. 



93 



I'arts in 100,000 



do. 

 i do. 



An experimental field in maize was put down on this farm in 1900 

 with the following results : — That on one of the plots a yield of 55'8 

 bushels was obtained. On another plot, manured with ^rd cwt. con- 

 centrated super] )hosphate and grdcwt. potash chloride, a yield of i&'S 

 bushels was harvested. The increases due to manures wei*e heavy and 

 profitable, in face of what might be considered the heavy expenditure 

 incurred in manuring. But the profits on the maize were by no means 

 the only ])rofits, for a mixed oat and wheat crop afterwards sown for 

 hay on the plots without further manuring, showed, in instances, 

 increases amounting to 20 and 24 cwt. to the acre from the manure still 

 left in the ground. With manures splendid potato and onion crops have 

 been grown on this soil. The potato crop, I am informed, reached 12 

 tons to the acre, calculated from a small plot, the onion crop above 

 this, and this on soil representative of an enormous area and con- 

 sidered to-day as of little or no agricultural value. Truly, gentlemen, 

 without hyperbole such results have indeed shown us how to add 

 another province to Victoria. 



