5 



erection ; good stone-walla have been built, and superior fences erected ; 

 swampy land has been drained, and dry fields have been supplied with 

 water ; pastures which at one time were in dense bush are now kept in 

 excellent order ; improved breeds of cattle have been imported at great 

 expense, and look sleek and happy. These are some of the object lessons 

 placed before the people of Biontpelier and the surrounding districts, 

 who cannot fail to profit by them. I firmly believe that one visit to an 

 experiment station, conducted on somewhat similar lines, would do more 

 towards enlightening a sceptical man than a month's talking, however 

 convincing the arguments put forward might be. 



. _ :o: 



REGENT EXPERIMENTS ON DE NITRIFICATION. * 



Notwithstanding the high position that artificial manures now take 

 in the estimation of farmers in all parts of the world, it cannot be said 

 that they have done anything to displace the use of farmyard manure, 

 which must still be regarded as our most general and important fertiliser. 

 All the farmyard manure produced in this country is -till applied to the 

 land, and artificials find their legitimate place as sources of plant food 

 on areas that the available supply of home-made manure is insufficient 

 to dress. 



So important is the part played by farmyard manure in modern 

 agriculture that it is a matter of surprise that a greater amount of scien- 

 tific attention has not been devoted to investigating methods by which 

 it may be best conserved and utilised. Recently, however, the German 

 Agricultural Society has turned its attention to the subject with much 

 vigour, and has enlisted the services of a large number of distinguished 

 scientists for the work, of whom perhaps the best known are Wagner 

 of Darmstadt, and Maercker of Halle. Although the investigations are 

 still in progress, they have already furnished results of such a startling 

 character that, whether we accept them as practically applicable or not. 

 we are at least forced to give them our serious attention. 



Nitrogenous Compounds in Farmyard Manukk. 



The most valuable constituent of farmyard manure is undoubtedly 

 the nitrogen, and it is chiefly with nitrogen that investigators have 

 so far dealt. This substance exists in the mixed mass that we call 

 farmyard manure, partly in the solid faeces, partly in the liquids, and 

 partly in the litter ; and accordingly it becomes of importance to deter- 

 mine the relative values of the nitrogen in these three main groups. 



In the tresh solid excreta of the horse, cow, and ox, Maercker has shown 

 that the great bulk of the nitrogen (generally 80 to 90 per cent) is in 

 the albuminoid form, the rest being present as ammonia, nitric acid and 

 amides. The constituents and action of sheep dung were also investi- 



• Prom Journal of Royal Agricultural Society of England, Vol. VIII. 



