166 AGRICULTURE 



permanent meadow land, nitrate of soda is 

 found to encourage deep-rooted plants which, 

 for the most part, are of a better type, and 

 more resistant to drought, than shallow-rooted 

 plants, like Smooth-stalked Meadow Grass 

 and Fiorin, which are encouraged by the use 

 of sulphate of ammonia. Whilst both these 

 nitrogenous manures tend to repress the 

 growth of leguminous plants, this is more 

 marked in the presence of sulphate of ammonia 

 than of nitrate of soda. 



Then, again, the inter-action of manures 

 on each other should not be forgotten. 

 Probably every farmer now knows that if 

 sulphate of ammonia or Peruvian guano 

 be mixed with basic slag, the free lime of the 

 latter reacts upon the ammoniacal manure 

 and liberates ammonia, whose escape into 

 the atmosphere can be detected by its 

 characteristic smell. Superphosphate of lime 

 or dissolved bones freshly made, and contain- 

 ing some free acid, will liberate a certain 

 amount of nitrogen if mixed with nitrate 

 of soda. Such a mixture, therefore, should 

 be at once applied to the land, and, if possible, 

 harrowed in. It will also be found that a 

 mixture of superphosphate and kainit will 

 get into a smeary condition it if is allowed 

 to lie too long unused, and especially will this 



