PREFACE. 



THE Mylor Braucb asked the Central Agricultural Bureau of 

 S.A. in September, 1895, to have a list prepared showing the Com- 

 mercial fertilisers in general use ; tne different cereals, fodder crops, 

 vegetables, and fruit trees to which each can be judiciously and 

 economically applied; those manures which can be mixed with 

 advantage, and especially those which should not be mixed together, 

 and in March, 1896, a similar motion passed at Stockport Branch. 

 The last part is answered thus. Do not apply at the same time, 

 or unless some weeks intervene, superphosphate with ^Thomas 

 phosphate, lime, or nitrate of soda. In this respect an interesting 

 experiment was made at the County Council farm in Lancashire in 

 1899. 1J cwt. of nitrate of soda gave an increase of 11 cwt. of 

 hay over unmanured plots. With 132 Ibs. sulphate of ammonia 

 (an equivalent to 1J cwt. of nitrate of soda) the increase over 

 unmanured plots was 1\ cwt. Where, on other plots, 2 cwt. of 

 superphosphate was added to the 132 Ib. of sulphate of ammonia, 

 11 cwt. of hay were cut, but where 2 cwt. superphosphate were 

 added to 1J cwt. of nitrate of soda, the superphosphate became 

 insoluble, and no more was harvested than with nitrate of soda 

 alone. If 2 cwt. of Thomas phosphate had been used with \\ cwt. 

 of nitrate of soda, the result would, in accordance with many other 

 experiments, have been a pretty large increase. Do not apply 

 Thomas phosphate with superphosphate or sulphate of ammonia. 

 Lists of the fertilisers appear in the reports of the Inspector of 

 Fertilisers, but what to apply, and the payable quantity to different 

 plants here cultivated, I have attempted to answer herein. I give 

 on page 6 a price-list of manures and present prices of cereals, &c., 

 to enable farmers to see in what case it pays to use fertilisers. What 

 pays in France or Germany with lower prices for most fertilisers, 

 and frequently higher prices for produce may not pay here. I have 

 collected the more important results which members of the Branches 

 of tl 3 Bureau have published since its establishment in 1888, thus 

 showing what have been the cultivated plants in certain districts 

 grown either successfully or not, and also results from using fer- 

 tilisers m other parts of Australia, Europe, and America. For, 

 as was said in the "Kew England Farmer/' : "The science of Agri- 

 culture is, in a great degree, founded on experience. It is, there- 

 fore, of consequence that every farmer should know what has been 

 done, and what is doing, by others engaged in the same occupation." 

 In this way I think you can only get into the current of thoughts 

 and facts, and observations obtain only their real value, if they 

 become common property through being published. I have added 

 to the results recorded by our Branches, the rainfall in brackets, 

 which in ever so many cases explains why a crop was poor although 

 manured, for moisture in the soil is the most important factor in 

 the growth of crops, and no amount of manuring and good cultiva- 

 tion can make up for the want of it. Some manures, however, 

 like bone meal ar.d Thomas phosphate, do very frequently show 



