FIELD EXPERIMENTS : ANALYSES 35 



to the farmer. The general results are collected into 

 series of ' Notes on Agricultural Analysis,' which are 

 published from time to time, and draw attention to the 

 more important of the facts the analyses in question 

 have brought out. As many as 350 samples, sent in by 

 different farmers, were dealt with during the twelve 

 months ending June, 1905, and experience shows that 

 no better means could be adopted for spreading informa- 

 tion of an essentially useful kind among working farmers, 

 and for enabling them both to effect reasonable economies 

 and to get good value for their money. In'one instance 

 a farmer sent in for analysis some mixed dairy cake, for 

 which he had paid 8 153. per ton. The analyst found 

 that, from the point of view of feeding-value, a fair price 

 would have been 6 73. In another instance mixed cake, 

 which had cost 7 los. per ton, was found to be worth 

 only 4 los that, at least, being the amount per ton for 

 which the farmer could have bought the ingredients and 

 mixed them for himself. ' As long as these high prices 

 rule,' say the analysts in their ' Notes ' for 1901-1903, 

 ' farmers will be well advised to purchase pure linseed 

 and cotton cakes and pure feeding meals and make their 

 own mixtures.' One Essex farmer whom I met, himself 

 a strong believer both in analysis and in co-operation, 

 told me that, even under these two conditions, his bills 

 for feeding-stuffs came to "1,600 a year. It is obvious 

 that, even on a much lower figure than this, the 

 purchase of feeding-stuffs at a price substantially 

 in excess of their food-value might in itself make all 

 the difference between profit and loss on the year's 

 transactions. 



In the case of artificial manures, again, certain of the 

 Essex farmers found, when they received their analyses 

 from the laboratories, that they had been paying at the 

 rate of 3 or 4 a ton for certain qualities which had 



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