1920.] 



Manures in October. 



685 



It is a little difficult to make a choice between the two sub- 

 stances; sulphate of potash is always safe in use, and there are 

 cases where the muriate is said to have been inferior or even 

 to have caused trouble. No authentic case of inferiority has 

 come to the writer's notice, and no doubt careful test experi- 

 ments will before long be made. For mangolds, grass and corn 

 the muriate is in all probability just as useful as the 

 sulphate; for potatoes and for tomatoes under glass it might 

 conceivably be less useful, though no definite rule could be 

 made without detailed experiments. 



Nitrogenous Fertilisers. — The nitrate of soda is as before 

 the War: the sulphate of ammonia may in some cases be better 

 where more efforts are being made to remove adhering acid. 

 There may be larger supplies than hitherto of the synthetic 

 fertilisers, nitrate of lime and nitrolim, and farmers may also 

 be offered trial lots of ammonium nitrate and ammonium 

 chloride. 



Lime. — Xone of the fertilisers described above does away 

 with the necessity for the use of lime. The two best indi- 

 cators of the need of this substance are: — 



1. Failure of clover in patches, except where definite disease 



is present; 



2. Finger-and-toe on the swedes and turnips. 



IBoth these will be showing during the next few weeks. Where 

 the need is established every endeavour should be made to meet 

 it; much time and money may be lost in attempting to culti- 

 vate sour land, and there is no short and easy way of avoiding 

 the use of lime. Agricultural committees looking for relief 

 work might well organise the liming and chalking of areas of 

 sour land — work that would be much more remunerative than 

 some that is usually proposed: and if, happily, the need for 

 organised relief never arises, they can start liming or chalking 

 associations among farmers on the lines adopted in some of the 

 Continental countries. 



Farmyard Manure. — When all is written about artificial 

 manures and lime, however, farmyard manure remains the 

 commonest and the most popular manure on the farm, and 

 unfortunately it is often the most neglected. It used to be 

 valued at about 4s. or 5s. per ton: at present prices it can 

 hazily be worth less than 15s. or 20s. If well made and well 

 stored it may even exceed 20s. per ton in value, but bad making 

 and bad storage may pull the value below 15s. and also reduce 

 the quantity. Every care should be taken of the farmyard 

 manure. 



