10 DR. WM. SAUNDERS. 



Q. It is really a very difficult thing to see how 100 pounds of green manure 

 will lose 50 pounds by rotting. 



A. The fermentation is a wasteful process. 



Q. What does the weight that is lost consist of? 



A. Chiefly water and carbonic acid gas. 



Q. That will be one of the plant foods? 



A. While this is not a plant food in the ordinary sense, it is absorbed by plants 

 and converted into woody tissue. Plants take this in through the leaves. 



Q. You regard 50 pounds of rotten manuroas equivalent to 100 pounds of green 

 manure? 



A. No, it is not more than equal in crop producing power to 50 pounds of fresh 

 manure. 



By the Chairman : 



Q. When fresh manure is put into the soil there is a fermentation goes on which 

 liberates part of the fertilizing elements in that soil on account of that fermentation. 

 This does not take place with the rotted manure. 



A. I think that is almost certain. We know that the liberation of plant food is 

 brought about largely by minute organisms which live in the soil and they propagate 

 freely in fermenting manure, and I have no doubt that the fermentation which does 

 take place when fresh manure is turned under is the chief reason why crops can be 

 obtained from a given weight of frech manure equal to those from the same weight 

 of rotted manure. Further, in the process of rotting the elements of fertility that are 

 in the liquid parts of the manure are largely lost, and these are more valuable pound 

 for pound than the solids, hence the sooner 3 r ou get the fresh manure into the ground 

 the better, for the soil absorbs everything as the fermentation goes on. 



The Chairman — Are there auy other questions to be asked Prof. Saunders ? 



OTHER EXPERIMENTS WITH FERTILIZERS. 



Prof. Saunders — I have a little more to bring before you in connection with 

 this question of fertilizers. Last year I expressed the opinion that the artificial 

 fertilizers used in connection with these fertilizer plots were not given a fair chance, 

 for the reason that the humus in the soil was largely exhausted, and the announce- 

 ment was made that it was proposed to sow clover in 1899 on all these plots and 

 plow that in, mainly with a view to add humus to the soil and thus increasing its 

 power of retaining moisture. In carrying this out there would also be the addition 

 of the fertilizing materials collected by the clover crop, but as clover was to be 

 sown on all the plots all would have an equal advantage. Clover was sown on all 

 these plots. It took very well on most of the plots, except those which had received 

 no fertilizers. There the clover was deficient in height, being only from four to six 

 inches, while in the other plots it varied from ten to twelve or fourteen inches high. 



By Mr. Featherston : 



Q. That was ploughed in the fall ? 



A. Yes, about the middle of October; and that land is now waiting treatment 

 in the spring, when it will be cut up with a disc harrow and harrowed with a 

 smoothing harrow before sowing. We find the same difficulty as to lack of humus 

 in the root crops and corn crops as we have found with the grain, and, as there is no 

 practicable way of adding humus to these plots so as to havo them comparable with 

 what we are doing on the grain except by sowing clover, it has been decided to sow 

 clover on these plots this year and let that clover go over until about the 23rd of 

 May, by which time there will be a large increase of growth, when the clover crop 

 will be still more valuable. For this reason the crops of corn and roots for 1900 

 will be discontinued on these plots. 



