36 



soda is now regularly used by some of our largest and most successful 

 hop growers, both on light and on heavy land ; but it is applied com- 

 paratively early in the season, when the soil is likely to be naturally 

 most deficient in nitrates, thus placing a supply of readily available 

 nitrogen at the disposal of the plant when it begins its active growth. 

 There can be little doubt that nitrate thus used is better calculated 

 to lay the foundation of a good crop than if the application is delayed, 

 as in older practice, until those months when the soil is actively 

 producing nitrates from other sources. 



The hop growing experiments of Mr. SHRIVELL and the present 

 writer have been mainly directed to ascertaining the limits within 

 which nitrate can be most economically and safely used. It has been 

 necessary for this purpose to make the experiments as direct and 

 simple as possible, and ? therefore, on a number of the plots nitrate of 

 soda in conjunction with phosphates and potash salts has been 

 used for a number of years as the sole source of nitrogen. In this 

 way annual applications of nitrate of soda have been made varying 

 from 2 cwt. up to as much as 10 cwt. per acre. 



Before, however, going on to describe the results it is as well to 

 explain that the exclusion of other nitrogenous manures on these 

 plots is merely due to the exigencies of the experimental conditions. 

 Neither of us supposes that any hop grower would use year after 

 year, as we are using on some of our plots, nothing but phosphates, 

 potash salts, and nitrate of soda. As has been pointed out elsewhere, 

 miscellaneous feeding is good for soils and good for crops, and the 

 best results are probably to be obtained by varying the source of 

 manure from time to time, using nitrate of soda as a supplement to 

 dung and the various other nitrogenous manures which have been 

 already referred to in the course of these notes. 



Furthermore, in order to keep the experiments at Hadlow as 

 free from complication as possible and within the scope of practical 

 management, no systematic attempt has been made to compare the 

 results obtained on the nitrated plots with those obtainable by the 

 use of miscellaneous nitrogenous manures ; but there is, side by side 

 with the purely chemically manured plots, for purposes of general 

 comparison, a trial plot manured every year solely with London 



