298 Agricultural Journal of Victoria. 



FIELD EXPERIMENTS OF THE PAST YEAR 

 BY THE CHEMICAL BRANCH. 



(A Paper Read before the Colac Conjevence. ) 



By F. J. HowpU, Ph. I). 



Ill my paper delivered at the Conference at Shepparton a tweh t- 

 niuntli ago I dealt oxliaiistively with the experimental field work of 

 the Chemical Branch from its first inauguration under Mr. Pearson, 

 up to the close of the season of 1901-2. In my paper special attention 

 was given to the work in the field of the last two years. It embraced 

 the period of my nssociation and activity witli the Department, and 

 covered the time of those great developments in a line of educational 

 work which, on account of its practical nature, has evei-y where 

 received the hearty su})port of the farmer. That conference was the 

 last opportunity I had of meeting the farmers in a body, face to face, 

 and speaking to them from the platform. To-day the opportunity 

 again presents itself, ;ind the opportunity, I need not tell you, brings 

 with it unlxnuuled ]>leasure. The matter of my present ])a])er will 

 constitute in a sense a continuation of the matter of my address of 

 a twelvemonth ago. It will deal with the attempts and the success 

 of the co-opei'ative experimental field work from the time I addressed 

 you last to the present moment. The ground to be covered in the 

 exposition of these results is very extensive: in fact, so much, so that 

 my pa])er can provide little more than a niei'e outline. The details 

 must be iilled in, in separate reports and papers which will c<inie 

 later. Tlntsi' of you who were present at the Conferejice last year 

 will remember how i sunmiarized the results which had followed the 

 two years of vigorous experimental field Avork in fertilization in tlu' 

 North. Before the ])resentation of new facts, we will start with clear 

 ideas again of what the old facts Avere. Lectures on maniu'ing have 

 been so fi'e(|uent, and publications on the same subject so general 

 during the last three years, that all of you must have pretty clear 

 ideas on the principles of fertilization. You will probably know the 

 substances a plant takes up from the soil during growth, tlu- substances 

 which a soil is apt to become deficient in, and tlu ])articular 

 manure we give to supply each substance. It is so important you 

 should be fully informed on all these j)oints that, at the risk even of 

 wearying some of you, I will repeat again what I told you on that 

 occasion. I told you then that a plant took up a large number of 

 substances from the soil during growth, and that all, or nearly all, 

 seemed essential to the health and normal development of the plant, 

 but that we did not require to consider all of these in manuring, 

 as the majority of them were present in the soil in ])ractically 

 inexhaustible quantities; quantities so large that continuous cropping 

 without manures Avould probably not reduce them to a point affecting 

 the productive power of the s<)il. I told yuu that there were three or 



