85 



EXPBRIMRNTS IN JAPAN. 



There is very little exact information on the subject of fertilisers 

 for «rice. In Japan and othar oriental countries a large proportion of 

 the rice lands is thorou^tily fertilisol in the fall with straw, leaves, rice 

 hulls, fish, and night soil. The fields are planted to wheat or vetches 

 for the winter crop, followed the next spring by rice without additional 

 manures. While carefully done, there are no comparisons or data to 

 show the actual advantage of fall fertilisation to the rice crop. At the 

 Imperial College of Agriculture at Tokio, Japan, a series of experi- 

 ments has been conducted on the same plats for nine years to deter- 

 mine the elements best suited to increase the yield of rice in Japanese 

 soils. Four small plats were selected, planted with the same variety 

 of rice^ and treated in every way alike except in the application of fer- 

 tilisers. For nine consecutive years a small amount of phosphate and 

 potash was sown on plat No. 1.; on plat 2, equal amounts of phosphoric 

 acid and nitrogen; on plat 3, potash and nitrogen; on plat 4, potash, 

 nitrogen, and phosphate. All these fertilisers were in an easily con- 

 vertible form. At the expiration of the test the rice on plats 1 and 2 

 was medium in quality and quantity. That on plat 3 was very poor — 

 could scarcely be called a crop — and that on plat 4 was very much 

 superior to all of the others, clearly indicating the value of a complete 

 fertiliser containing the three essential elements of plant food — nitrogen, 

 potash, and phosphoric acid. 



EXPERIMENTS IN LOUISIANA. 



In Bulletins 15 and 24 of the Louisiana Experiment Station Dr. 

 W. (j. Stubbs has discussed this subject of manures for rice. He says: ^ 



Rice is not a great impoverisher of the soil, especially if the straw and 

 chaff are regularly returned to it. Exactly how to apply manures to rice in 

 order that they may accomplish the greatest amount of good possible, when 

 the rice is soou to be inundated, is yet an unsettled question. For the two 

 years of the experiment the various fertilisers have been scattered broadcast 

 over the soil before bein^ broken. The soil has then been inverted and har- 

 rowed and rice sown. This mode of application has not been satisfactory. 

 The increased results, while sometimes apparent were not large. , 



The largest yield was obtained from an application of 300 pounds 

 of cotton-seed meal, 150 pounds of acid phosphate, and 50 pounds of 

 kainit spread on the surf;ice of the ploughed ground just before the seed 

 was harrowed in. The same fertilisers used singly or in combinations 

 of only two did not increase the yield of either straw or grain when 

 spread on the ground and ploughed under. The increase for the first 

 mixture amounted to 25 per cent, of both straw and grain. Where 

 ploughed under, the fertilisers seem to have been buried too deep to 

 produce any noticeable effect. 



While these conclusions are not final, Dr. Stubbs recommends the 

 use on black soils of two parts of cotton-seed meal and one part acid 

 phosphate, mixed and applied broadcast before the rice is harrowed in. 

 On sandy land he would add kainit at the rate of 200 pounds to the 

 acre. In Bulletin 24 there is the following additional report : ^ 



1 Bui. 15, p. 1888. 



2 Bui. 24, p. 365. 1889. 



