1020 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK xi. 



pressings, however, should not be applied all at once, but should be 

 divided into | cwt. dressings, put on at intervals of a few weeks. In 

 this way the full benefit of the manure is insured, and an over rank 

 or sudden spurt in growth is prevented. On light or sandy land 

 smaller quantities must be used from f cwt. to 1 cwt. per acre, but 

 there are few soils on which in ordinary circumstances a suitably 

 proportioned dose of nitrate may not be used, whether for wheat, 

 oats, or barley. Very frequently, it is true, we hear of an over- 

 growth of straw and a consequently " laid " crop following on the 

 use of nitrate of soda, but this is generally either because too much has 

 been used or because it has been put on all at once instead of in 

 instalments. 



Fish-guano is sometimes applied in the autumn as a source of both 

 phosphates and nitrogen, and in this case the top-dressing of nitrate 

 should be light. 



If, on the other hand, rich highly ammoniacal guano or rich dissolved 

 guano is used as a source of both nitrogen and phosphates, it should 

 be applied in spring. 



BARLEY AND OATS. These crops, and especially barley, should be 

 dressed with phosphates in most cases, for being spring-sown crops, and 

 therefore short of life, they have not the same opportunity as wheat for 

 searching the soil for food. The phosphatic dressing similar to those 

 just recommended for wheat, should be put on at seed time, and top- 

 dressings of nitrate applied later as in the case of wheat, though, as a 

 general rule, somewhat lighter ones, especially in the case of barley. 

 In applying nitrate of soda to barley the farmer should, the first year 

 that he attempts it on a new farm, proceed carefully, not exceeding 

 1 cwt. per acre for his main crop, and trying on a small experimental 

 portion a heavier dressing. The reason for this is that some land will 

 not yield its best growth of barley under conditions of too high 

 manuring, extra weight being produced at the expense of quality, 

 which in barley is everything. A great deal depends upon the pre- 

 ceding crop. Barley after wheat may be profitably manured much more 

 highly than barley after a luxuriant turnip-crop fed off on the land 

 with cake. 



TUKNIPS. This crop is generally dunged, but, even with a full 

 dunging, it is not wise to grow turnips without an application of 

 artificial phosphates, which seem to have a specially useful effect in 

 advancing the growth of the plant during the earlier and more critical 

 stage of its life. They are particularly valuable in forcing the seedling 

 plants rapidly into the " rough leaf," and so beyond the risk of 

 destruction by the turnip "fly," as this voracious little pest feeds by 

 preference upon the smooth seed-leaves. Turnips, indeed, are proba- 

 bly the crop which more than any other is responsive to phosphatic 

 manure, an application before sowing being on most land necessary for 

 getting a full crop. On land poor in lime, basic slag is probably as 

 good a phosphatic dressing for this crop as we can have, 5 or 6 cwt. 



