Manures and Fertilizers. 29 



Rape Dust is made from the residues of rape seed after 

 crushing for the extraction of oil ; also from waste fragments 

 of rape cake. It contains about 5 per cent, nitrogen, and 

 small quantities of phosphoric acid and potash. It quickly 

 decomposes and supplies nitrogen to the plant throughout the 

 season. For equal quantities of nitrogen it is almost as 

 quickly effective as nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia, 

 over either of which it has the advantage of being organic and 

 so improving the texture of the soil ; for the same reason it 

 is good for use under glass. It cannot be washed out by rain. 

 Some growers consider rape dust to be useful for the eradica- 

 tion of wireworm. 



Use 5 to 10 cwt. per acre or 2 to 4 ozs. per square yard. 



Castor Seed Meal is very similar in composition and action 

 to the above, and is used in a similar way. 



Soot is a very useful nitrogenous manure. It is not possibfe 

 to give the percentage of nitrogen contained in soot, because 

 scarcely any two samples are alike, some containing a large 

 proportion of ashes or other useless material. It is usually 

 sold by the bushel, which is of variable weight, about 28lb. 

 being the average; as a general rule the lighter a bushel 

 weighs the more valuable is the soot, because it is puren Soot 

 is very useful as a top-dressing in spring, or at any time when 

 the crop needs pushing along gently. It has a distinctly 

 beneficial effect upon heavy soil by lightening the texture; 

 also by darkening the colour of soils it causes them more 

 readily to absorb and retain sun heat and thus raises the 

 temperature. Soot is very distasteful to slugs and is useful 

 to ward off such things as celery, carrot, and onion fly, by 

 dusting over the foliage when it is wet with dew. 



Shoddy or Wool Refuse is composed of fragments of wool 

 which are too short or otherwise unsuitable for re-spinning, as 

 well as any form of waste from silk or wool which is no longer 

 profitable to work into cloth. It also frequently contains rags, 

 hair, flock dust, fur waste, cloth clippings, and other similar 

 materials, together with an admixture of dirt. Its composition 

 is very variable and it may contain from 5 to 15 per cent, of 

 nitrogen. It is a slow and lasting manure and is used by 



