PRACTICAL REMARKS 51 



nitrogenous food which it finds in the soil. The stiffness of 

 the straw also admits of larger applications of manure being 

 given than can be safely used in the case of barley. 



The wheat crop is commonly given the best place in a 

 rotation, it is grown when the land has accumulated a supply 

 of nitrogenous food ; thus it follows clover or beans, or a 

 heavily manured crop of mangel, or comes after a bare fallow. 

 Grown under these circumstances only a small amount of 

 additional manure is demanded, and an application of i cwt. 

 of sulphate of ammonia, and 2 cwts. of superphosphate, per 

 acre, will generally be found quite sufficient. Two cwts. of 

 kainite may often be added with advantage. 



In deciding whether a spring dressing of sulphate of 

 ammonia shall be given, the farmer must take into account 

 not only the previous manuring and condition of the field, but 

 also the character of the past autumn and winter. If the wheat 

 is grown in a favourable position in the rotation, and the pre- 

 ceding autumn and winter have been dry, little or no nitro- 

 genous manure should be applied in the spring, as the soil will 

 under these circumstances contain a good supply of nitrates, 

 accumulated without loss during many months of rest. The 

 wetter has been the preceding weather, the more thoroughly 

 the nitrates have been removed from the soil by the percolation 

 of rain water, the more is an application of readily available 

 nitrogenous manure demanded in the spring. 



Now, however, that the farmer has effective nitrogenous 

 manures at his command, the cultivation of wheat need not be 

 limited to any particular part of a rotation. If prices warrant 

 such a course, the farmer can grow wheat successfully by 

 means of artificial manures after almost any crop, and wheat 

 after wheat may be taken with excellent results, as the long 

 extended trials at Rothamsted and Woburn amply demonstrate. 

 When wheat is grown without the previous accumulation of 

 plant food in the soil which occurs in the ordinary practice, 

 more artificial manure must be employed, and 2 or 3 cwts. of 

 sulphate of ammonia per acre will become necessary. The 

 demand for kainite and superphosphate will also be increased. 



A profitable extension of the growth of wheat by artificial 



