PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 375 



at Cockle Park and Sevington (Hants) and for eight years afc Cransley 

 (Northants). At Cockle Park slag acted snbstantiallv better than dissolved 

 bones, though the latter surpassed the effect of superphosphate; at Sevington 

 dissolved bones proved inferior to both the other manures; while at Cransley 

 the position was reversed. But when the cost is considered there is no question 

 of the superior merits of basic slag. This superiority is continued and emphasised 

 at Cockle Park where the experiments are now at the end of their twenty-third 

 year. A similar result was also obtained in the series of pasture experiments 

 conducted by the Eoyal Agricultural Society of England alreadv referred to. 

 J here^ dissolved bones- or bone meal was tried at ten centres, With the result 

 that in Herefordshire some benefit was observed, but in the other places no 

 real improvement could be detected as compared with the unmanured part of the 

 held, bo far as these mvesticfations go. therefore, thev indicate that no further 

 experiments need be made with bones on pasture land.'^" 



With these results before us it is needless to pause to consider whether the 

 comparative failure of bones, dissolved or raw. is due to the inferior quality 

 of their phosphate, or to the fact that they supply the land with nitrogen. 



A form of pasture improvement which' has had, and still has. much support 

 amongst farmers is feeding with cake. The manure applied to the land through 

 cake residues is a 'general ' manure, supplying nitrogen, phosphates, and potash, 

 of which that which has the highest value attached to it is" the nitrogen. At 

 eleven of the stations in England and Scotland reported on in the Supplement to 

 the 'Journal of the Board of Agriculture' in 1911, ■>! linseed or cotton rake, 

 or a mixture of these cakes, was used for two, four, or five years, and at every 

 one of them the live-weight gain secured was insufficient to pay for the outlay, 

 the debit balance per acre per annum being in one case nearly a" pound. In con- 

 nection with the improvement of pasture, however, it is the residual effect 

 of the cake that has most interest. This matter was put to the test at eight 

 of_ the manuring-for-mutton stations in the following manner. At the three 

 original stations cake was fed all through the season for two vears and none 

 given for the next four. At the other five stations cake was fed"^for two or four 

 years, and was then suspended for one, two, or three years. In this way the im- 

 provement of the herbage effected during the years when cake was fed had an 

 opportunity of manifesting itself in the form of live-weight increase in the 

 years immediately succeeding, when no cake was given. In every ca.se the 

 residual effect was found to be appreciable, having a money value per ton of 

 cake consumed of as much as 41. Us. at one station, and 31. lis. at another, 

 the average for the three stations where the residues were followed for four 

 years being fully 31. per ton, a figure which is of the same order as, thouo-h 

 somewhat higher than, those adopted by Voelcker and Hall in their revised 

 table of 1902.^2 



At Cockle Park on Tree Field the question of the immediate and residual 

 effects of decorticated cotton cake has been pursued through twenty-one years. 

 After the first stage of nine years, cake was fed for three vears, and its residues 

 tested for the succeeding three years, and similarly in the next period of six 

 years. In this connection I cannot do better 'than quote from Gilchrist's 

 Reports. Commenting on the second six-years period, he says, 'Decorticated 

 cotton cake fed to the sheep on plot 1 in the first three years gave a small 

 gain in these years, but throughput the six years the average annual train 

 amounts to only 9d. an acre.' "^ As to the third 'period of six years he reports, 

 'Decorticated cotton cake fed to the sheep on plot 1 in the first three years 

 has resulted in an annual loss of U.S. 9d. an acre. ... It is notable that the 

 cake has not given a profitable return from the sheep in the years when it was 

 fed to them, and it has had little unexhausted value in the later years. 

 Nitrogen from the cake has had the same effect on the herbage of this plot as 

 nitrogen from the nitrate of soda on plot 9, and the herbage is still of a coarse 

 and benty character.'''* This, on land which has had about 2^ tons per acre 



*° Op. at., p. 135. 

 •" Op. rit.,'Tp. 22. 



Joiir. Boy. Affile. Soc. Engl., vol. 36, p. 111. 



42 

 43 



Guide to Experiments for 1917,' p. 13. 

 'Guide to Experiments for 1918,' p. 15. 



F F 2 



