13 



fertiliser, a few turn-* without one, then again with a larger quantity 

 of the fertiliser, and in turn in the same manner with the other 

 fertilisers, and finally with two mixed you will quickly and cheaply 

 learn what your soil wants. Maximum crops at the smallest cost 

 only pay to-day, and rational application of manures is, therefore, 

 imperative, and gives us the only chance of contending Avith low 

 prices. Many farmers having had good crops with phosphatic 

 manures say they require no other, butithey should consider that 

 nitrogen and potash has been drawn from the soil, and it stands to 

 reason that sooner or later the soluble supply of these plant- 

 foods must give out, and the crops get poor again. 



The remarks made by Messrs. Proebsting and Arnold in 

 'TEpuisement en Potasse Sols Beiges" for 1901 will before long 

 be here quite worthy of consideration, that the constantly increasing 

 use of phosphoric acid become^ there already in a good measure un- 

 productive through want of potash. The loss through the ineffi- 

 cient use of potash represents for Belgium already fantastic sums, for 

 nitrogen and phosphoric acid alone are exhausting the soil of potash, 

 and impoverish the cultivated land yearly by a net deficit of 

 77,366,000 Ib. of potash, after allowing for the potash in farmyard 

 dung, urine, and last year's quantity of potassic manures used by 

 Belgian farmers. 



GENERAL REMARKS ON GROWING CEREALS. 



It is doubtless correct that in our more arid portions of the 

 North, the subsoil is of more importance than the mostly shallow 

 worked surface soil. Unless you can irrigate you must fallow early, 

 and utilise the winter rains by making the subsoil your reservoir 

 for the next crop. But to retain the benefit of the moisture thuj 

 stored in the subsoil, you must mulch the surface as well as if you 

 had irrigated, that is, have a layer of loose, well-tilled soil, three 

 inches deep, for cereals, which will prevent too rapid evaporation to 

 a great extent. The fact that weeds make their appearance on 

 fallow long after all rain has ceased, while lands not stirred and 

 sun-cracked are quite bare, shows that moisture has been conserved 

 and is raised to the loose, tilled surface. But, of course, very shal- 

 low ploughing, especially in clay loams, year after year, may form a 

 plcughsole, that prevents the roots from penetrating deeper , 

 they are, in that case, subject to the injurious effect of the hot, dry 

 surface-soil and air. I do not think that by going gradually a 

 little deeper, the surface soil will be poisoned for the next season's 

 crop very often by 'raw" subsoil, and a somewhat deeper mould, 

 having been exposed to our powerful solar heat, is of very great 

 advantage. According to experiments made in California with a 

 similar climate by Professors Hilgard and Lousrhridge. the difference 

 of moisture kept in cultivated and uncultivated land up to 6 ft. 

 depth is 244 tons per acre; but even the first foot is 42 tons in 

 favor of cultivated ground. The hygroscopic moisture absorbed 

 from the atmosphere varies according to the texture of the soil. In 

 .sandy soils there is usually found 2 to 3 per cent, present ; in loamy, 



