In Tasmania peas are generally grown without manure, and 

 give but very poor crops, from 10 to 20 bushels; at Frankfort, 30 

 bushels of grey peas were grown and 6 cwt. of bonedust used. 



With broad beans an experiment was made , by Mr. 

 E. Lierke, of Westeregeln. Potash and phosphoric acid showed there 

 also very much increased crops, while nitrogen was barely doing 

 this as regards the ripe beans. Unmanured, the crop of green, 

 beans was 9,472 Ib. per acre, the green stalks and leaves 14,368 lb., 

 ripe beans 2,246 Ib. Manured with 153 Ib. of sulphate of potash and 

 216 Ib. of double superphosphate, the green pods weighed 11,265 lb.> 

 the stalks, etc., 16,304 Ib., the ripe beans 3,502 Ib. Nitrate of soda 

 being substituted for the phosphoric acid, the pods and stalks 

 weighed more, but the dry beans less, only 3,098 Ib. 



Mr. Jas. Mason, of Witney, Scotland, manured exhausted soil 

 as regards cereals with phosphoric acid, lime, and magnesia (pro- 

 bably the potash manure containing much magnesia, sulphate of 

 potash-magnesia), tilled well, had a strong crop of beans, followed 

 by a fair crop of clover hay, and another clover crop. He col- 

 lected, without nitrogenous manure, 376 Ib. of nitrogen per acre in 

 the three years, equal to 1 ton of nitrate of soda. This supported 

 in the fourth year so voracious a nitrogen-eating crop as potatoes. 



Farmyard dung has about the right proportions of potash, 

 viz., 2 per cent, to 1 per cent, of phosphoric acid, but the 2 por 

 cent, of nitrogen in it are far in excess of the need of the bean, and 

 it is, therefore, wasted, and prevents the drawing of the nitrogen 

 from the air. Professor Wright records the experiments made with 

 beans at Pumpherston in a cold, thin, high-lying, poor clay. All 

 the plots received nitrate of soda and phosphoric acid except one, 

 which had only potash salts, and this plot gave 26 J bushels of dressed 

 beans per acre. Of plot 1, that had sulphate of potash, the crop 

 was 4-3-.V bushels ; plot 2 had muriate of potash, and returned 48?? 

 bushels ; plot 3 had only the nitrate and superphosphate, and the 

 crop was only 5J bushels and 2J cwt. of straw. Professor Wagner 

 has shown how little nitrogen is required for beans in plot 10, 

 in his "Anwendung Kunstliciier Dimgemittel." Dr. Aitken'? 

 experiments at the same place gave as the average return of four 

 plots without potash, plot No. 1 unmanured, No. 2 with phosphate, 

 No. 3 with nitrate, and No. 4 with nitrate and phosphate as 5J 

 bushels per acre ; while the average of four other plots, 1 with 

 potash, 2 potash and phosphate, 3 potash, phosphate, and nitrate, and 

 4 potash, phosphate, nitrate, and gypsum, was 41 J bushels per acre. 

 The quantities of manure used were at the rate of 160 Ib. of phos- 

 phoric acid, nitrogen at the rate of 40 Ib., and potash at the rate* 

 of 120 Ib. per acre. Director Dabney, of North Carolina, U.S., 

 says : "Kainit and peas together are the most promising agents for 

 improving our southern soils;" and Mr. McCallum, of Robeson 

 County, says: "The plot on which I used kainit made twice as many 

 peas as any of the others. You could plainly tell the very row 

 where the kainit commenced by the number of pe,as." Experiments 

 made by J. Harms, of Neuendeich, Holstein, on heavy soil, after re- 

 ceiving at the rate of 64 cwt. of lime per acre, gave a profit of 1/7/6 



