26 FERTILISERS AS AN AID TO 



square yard ! Five cwt. of fertiliser per acre 



only amounts to about one grain of fertiliser to 



every pound of soil to the depth of nine inches. 



The great importance of " good mechanical 



condition for equal distribution " is 



pointed out in leaflet No. 80 of the 

 essentia. Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, 



where it is described as of " hardly 

 less importance than the selection of manure/' 



This is borne out by a manurial trial conducted 

 at the farm of the Harper-Adams Agricultural 

 College in Shropshire, during the four years 1909 

 to 1912 inclusive, when factory-made potassic 

 superphosphate compared with equal quantities 

 of phosphate and potash applied in the form of 

 superphosphate and kainit, showed a consistent 

 yearly increase of hay averaging three cwt. per 

 acre in favour of the factory-prepared fertiliser, 

 which much more than repaid its slightly higher 

 cost. 



Items of expense which are incurred, but 

 which are not usually considered, are the labour 

 involved in mixing and crushing the lumps, the 

 wear and tear of implements, and the loss in 

 weight arising from material which is absorbed 

 by, or clings to, the sacks, no matter how well 



cleaned, and the loss by the chemical 

 is money action induced. It would be an 



object lesson and an unwelcome 

 surprise to any one who mixes four or five tons 

 of bagged materials, and then has the resultant 

 mixture very carefully weighed after the opera- 

 tion, to realise what is the extent of this loss. 



