On the Manuring of Grass Land. 



239 



Foul lime from gasworks may be beneficially applied to grass- 

 land ; but it is better to apply it to the grass as it comes from the 

 woi'ks than to make a compost of it with earth, as farmers com- 

 monly do. It contains sulphide and hyposulphite, as well as 

 carbonate and sulphate of lime, and the mixture with earth and 

 turning has a tendency to convert all the sulphur by oxidation 

 into sulphates. A ton per acre, applied once in from seven to 

 ten years, could hardly fail to do good."^ 



Soaper's waste might be used with great benefit at considerable 

 intervals, say every fifth or seventh year. It contains alkaline 

 salts as well as lime, and, if turned up with three times its weight 

 of soil and applied at the rate of a ton per acre, must be useful. 

 It ought to be tried in cases where grass is sour. The prejudice 

 against it arises from misapplications. 



Very few farmers have any conception of the exhausting cha- 

 racter of grass. They never realize the quantities oi matter 

 removed, and consequently they never realize the pressing neces- 

 sity for quantities of matter to be added if their grass is to be 

 kept at a maximum of productiveness. A volume of reasoning 

 would have less avail than an actual exhibition of quantities, 

 and I therefore earnestly entreat their careful attention to the 

 following table. 



1000 lbs. of the dried plants contain : — 



Plakis. 



Pine forest, 80 years old 



Beech fruit, ICO years old 



Meadow-grass (hay and aftermath) 



Wheat, ripe (grain and straw) . . 



Eye, ripe ditto 



Barley, ripe ditto 



Oats, ripe ditto 



Winter rape ditto 



Peas, ripe ditto 



Potatoes, ripe ftubers and haulm) . 



Beet (roots and foliage) 



Clover (in flower) 



Tobacco, green (^leaves and stalks) . 



Nitrogen. 



lbs. 



3 



5 



U 



10 



9 



11 



10 



12 



21 



16 



18 



20 



20 



Phosiihoric p„j^ ^ 

 Acid. 



lbs. 

 J. 



4 

 1 



16 



4 



8 



5i 



6j 



4' 



5i 



5i 



.lbs. 

 X 



l| 



17 



7 



7 

 13 

 11 

 22 

 21 

 20 

 24 



Lime and 



Mamesia. 



lbs. 

 2 



r,i 



8 



3^ 



3i 



5i 



4i 

 1.3" 

 16 

 11 



7 

 20 

 40-60 



1 

 20 

 20 

 18 

 20 

 21 



2 



8* 



The full significance of these figures will be apprehended bj? 

 comparing the total quantities of the several crops reaped from an 

 acre, e. (j. : — 



* I have tried gas-lime in different quantities and on different kinds of land, 

 but with uniformly bad results. It deepened the colour of the grass, but gave it 

 a coarse wiry character, which made it particularly unpalatable to cattle ; and 

 several years elapsed before they would graze readily on the spots where it had 

 been applied. It is quite possible that in other localities it may answer better, 

 but I would recommend great caution in trjing it. — H. S. Thompson. 



t Stockhardt, p. 292. 



