596 



The Agricultueal Value of Sea- Sand. 



[Oct., 



Council to ascertain its effect on temporary pastures and its value 

 when compared with burnt lime and ground limestone. On one 

 farm the three forms of lime were applied in December, 1920, 

 to old grass land, the pasture being thin and poor — little more 

 than Yorkshire Fog and Crested Dogstail with diminutive legu- 

 minous plants. Phosphates, potash and sulphate of ammonia 

 v/ere sow^i across the limed plots. Within a year a very great 

 improvement was noticed on all the plots, but of the three which 

 had received some form of lime that to which sea-sand had been 

 applied seemed in most respects the best and this superiority 

 is still being maintained. 



On another farm, at Eoehe, a field of 8 acres received a rather 

 heavy application of superphosphate, bone meal and basic slag 

 for rape in 1920. Dredge corn (a mixture of oats and barley) 

 was next taken and grass and clover seeds sown with the corn. 

 Neither artificial manure nor dung was used for this crop but 

 on three plots, each one acre in area, some form of lime was 

 applied, viz., No. 1, 4 tons of sea-sand; No. 2, 2 tons of ground 

 limestone; No. 3, half a ton of ground lime. Six months after, 

 when the first inspection was made, the " seeds " over the 

 whole field were very thin and there w\as still a good deal of 

 spurrey, sheep's sorrel, silverleaf and selfheal, but these weeds 

 were less conspicuous on the ground lime and the limestone 

 plots than on the sea-sand plot. The unlimed part of the field 

 showed a much larger proportion still of weeds, silverleaf being 

 particularly abundant. Twelve months after (June, 1922), a 

 most remarkable improvement was seen. On each of the three 

 plots to which lime had been applied there was a very dense 

 growth of clovers (red, alsike, and white) and grasses, the former 

 being then fully a foot high. The whole was so dense that it 

 was only by separating it and thus getting to the bottom that 

 any w^eds could be found and they were then seen to be diminu- 

 tive and weak. On that part w^hich had received no lime there 

 w^as an abundance of sheep's sorrel — the most conspicuous weed 

 — silverleaf, and spurrey, with a very thin covering of grass and 

 clovers, the latter evidently badly nourished. 



The differences in the appearance of the two portions of the 

 field were very striking, and could be plainly seen at a distance 

 of two miles ! Of the three limed plots the herbage of that which 

 had received sea-sand was quite equal in every way (in some 

 respects rather superior) to that of the other two. 



The cost of the lime applied was as follows : — 



No. 1. Four tons of sea-sand at 8/- = £1 12 



No. 2, Two tons of ground limestone at 85/- ... = £8 10 

 No. 3. Half a ton of ground lime at 66/-...' ... = £1 13 



