20 



able, therefore, to suppose that nitrate of soda itself will be 

 more grateful to the hops at the earlier stages of their growth, 

 before the products of natural nitrification become abundant. 

 If we can get at any rate a considerable proportion of our 

 nitrate of soda well incorporated with the soil by the time the 

 bine begins its active and rapid growth, we may be helping 

 to lay the foundation of a good crop better than if we delay 

 the application of the nitrate until those months when the 

 soil is actively producing nitrates from other sources. This 

 policy would appear especially to hold good after a wet 

 autumn and winter, which would have had the effect of wash- 

 ing away the residual nitrates unutilised by the previous 

 crop. 



In concluding this report I would once again emphasise the 

 necessity, whether dung is used or not, and whatever form of 

 nitrogenous manure is employed, of also using an abundance 

 of phosphates. On soils containing plenty of lime, no better 

 or cheaper phosphatic manure can be used than superphos- 

 phate, of which 8 cwt. per acre per annum makes a fair 

 dressing. But if the soil is not decidedly calcareous that is 

 to say, if it does not effervesce when it is stirred up with 

 some diluted hydrochloric (muriatic) acid basic slag, bone 

 dust, or guano should be used as a source of phosphates, at 

 the rate of not less than | ton per acre. On medium soils 

 which, without being distinctly calcareous, nevertheless con- 

 tain a just appreciable proportion of carbonate of lime, it is pro- 

 bably a good plan to use the latter class of manures alternately 

 with superphosphate. But it is wise policy to use phosphates 

 in some form or other every year in every hop garden. They 

 are inexpensive, and without them neither dung, nitrate of 

 soda, ammonia salts, nor organic manures can be expected to 



