33 



poverty in lime is indicated, and the phosphatic manure to be used 

 should be chosen accordingly. In doubtful cases an analytical 

 examination of the soil is desirable. 



A special application of potash salts is probably less necessary as 

 a rule than one of phosphates, and no doubt on a great many soils, 

 especially where dung has been freely used, potash salts need not be 

 applied at all. But where dung is not freely used it is probably safer, 

 in the writer's opinion, in most seasons and on most soils, to give a 

 dressing of potash salts, unless experience or investigation of the soil 

 has distinctly indicated that the natural supply of available potash is 

 sufficient. On many soils the aid of potash salts should on no account 

 be dispensed with, and their moderate and proper use is in no case 

 likely to do harm. 



The repeated application of kainit year after year is not to be 

 recommended, on account of the large quantities of salt and of mag- 

 nesium chloride contained in this form of potash salts, in addition to 

 the sulphate of potash, for which it is chiefly useful. For regular 

 application, a dressing of from i cwt. to 2 cwt. per acre of sulphate of 

 potash is probably better than kainit, but every now and again a 

 variation may be made by applying 5 or 6 cwt. of kainit per acre. 



In the case of many hop gardens which have been under long 

 cultivation, much good is no doubt to be derived from an occasional 

 dressing of lime, which should be applied in the winter in a finely 

 ground state so as to be well distributed. 



There is practically no chance of injuring either the quality or the 

 yield of the hop crop by an over-supply of phosphates or by any 

 ordinary application of potash salts. Given a sufficiency of these, 

 however, both the quality and the quantity of the crop are capable of 

 being largely influenced both by the nature and by the quantity of 

 the manure used to supply the nitrogen, and also by the time of its 

 application. 



The nitrogenous manures used for hops in former days to supple- 

 ment home-made dung, were chiefly of the organic kind. Home- 

 made dung, while a most valuable adjunct to hop farming, can never 

 be more than an adjunct, owing to the necessarily limited quantities 



