300 Agricultural Journal of Victoria. 



Nortli to justify the principal attention being given to the soils of 

 the South, and it is to this part of Victoria that our field investiga- 

 tions of last year were mainly directed. Those investigations were 

 not confined to questions of fertilization only, but included 

 considerations of a much wider range, affecting the destinies of 

 important industries. 



FERTILIZATION EXPERIMENTS. 



In my paper of last year I called attention to the few fertilization 

 experiments which up to that time had been undertaken in the South, 

 and from the few results I then had to hand, I ventured to geii^eralize 

 on probable soil requirements, and the moi'e complicated problems 

 which it seemed likely the lands of that part of Victoria would offer 

 the Chemist. The results of the past year have in every way 

 confirmed the opinions I then expressed. The views offered in my 

 former paper may be worth repeating. I there stated : " To 

 generalize, then, on the soil re(juirements of the Southern districts 

 is not the easy matter that it is with the northern areas. The smaller 

 number of results to hand, and the various other reasons I have 

 already called attention to, prevent one speaking with too much 

 confidence, but a few striking facts stand out in the results before 

 you ; that is, that all these soils respond to phosphoric acid, and that 

 a combination of a complete manure gives better i-esults than 

 phosphoric acid alone, tliat nitrogen is re(]uired in a much less degree 

 generally than phosphoric acid, and potash to a still less extent. 

 There will be soils where the various requirements might be in 

 reverse order, but the facts I stated might, I think, be accepted as 

 generally true." The work that was carried out last year was largely 

 in the direction of further elucidating those (juestions. I will call your 

 attention directly to the results of a number of crops grown upon 

 experimental fields in different parts of Gippsland and the Western 

 district. Two facts, liowever, I wish you to have clearly before you 

 from the start. The first is the more complicated nature of soil 

 investigations in the South, and the second, the far larger quantities 

 of manures we shall require to use there than in the North. I have 

 already incidentally referred to the first difficulty. This greater 

 complexity in the solution of fertilization problems in the South 

 depends u])on a number of circumstances. The greater diversities 

 of soil and differences in rainfall, and the wide range of crops 

 possible, each with its special requirements, are among the causes 

 mainly contributing to this. In the North, it was essentially one 

 crop, with a rainfall of no wide variation, and soils in their cliemical 

 composition at any rate of a very marked uniformity of character. 

 The solution of fertilization problems there was an easy 

 one. And now, then, a few words on the second fact which I wish 

 you to hold before you, the necessity of far heavier manurial 

 dressings in the South than in the North. There are compensating 

 conditions for all positions in life. The poor farmer of the North has 

 found his in the remarkablv small yearly outlay required for the 



