December, 1911.] 



527 



Scientific Agriculture. 



thirds of it are used up by the first crop ; 

 there may be, indeed, only one-halt or 

 one-third of it used. The rest remains 

 in the ground in the great part for the 

 use of subsequent crops. This is shown 

 clearly enough in the following results 

 obtained by Mr. John Goldie, at Port 

 Fairy. A dressing of manure was given 

 in 1889, and the crops obtained in 1890 

 and 1891 were as follows :— 



Mangolds— 1890. Wheat— 1891. 







per acre. 



per acre. 







tons. cwt. 



bushels. 



Plot 



1 .. 



29 



10 



33| 



9 9 



2 .. 



41 



14 



.. 42 



5' 



3 .. 



21 



14 . 



28 



99 



4 .. 



44 



4 



44$ 



99 

 »• 



5 



39 



10 



39^ 



6 .. 



27 



6 



9 9 



7 .. 



44 



11 





99 



8 .. 



19 



10 



28 1 



Here we find on plot 7, as compared 

 with plot 8 an increase of 25 tons of 

 mangolds and 10 bushels of wheat. If 

 the mangolds are valued at the very low 

 rate of only 5s. per ton, and the wheat 

 at only 2s. per bushel, this was a gain of 

 £7 5s. per acre. The cost of the manure 

 in this case would have amounted to 

 only £1 9s. per acre. 



We may conclude this section with 

 one or more illustration. The problem 

 of profitable manuring in our dry north- 

 ern districts, where the great bulk of 

 our wheat is grown, has presented 

 certain difficulties which have been 

 overcome only by several years ' experi- 

 mental work. In the earliest attempts 

 it was found that the crops were often 

 seriously injured by the application of 

 fertilizers to the land. The manured 

 crops made remarkable growth in their 

 early stages, while there was plenty of 

 moisture in the soil ; but afterwards, 

 when the hot dry weather set in, they 

 dried up. The farmers concluded that 

 the manures were of a scorching nature, 

 Wheat on Fallow Land. Sown 25th 



and caused the crop to be burnt up. 

 The truth was that the crops made such 

 prolific growth in their early stages that 

 they rapidly used up the scanty store of 

 soil moisture, and in their later stages, 

 when their large size gave them a corres- 

 pondingly large need of moisture, there 

 was less soil moisture left for them. 

 They consequently died off for want of 

 water. The manures were used only in 

 light dressings, as ideas of light dressings 

 went in those days. But it takes time 

 to climb down from notions of tons to 

 the acre. It is not much more than a 

 generation ago since an application of 

 10 tons of manure to the acre was 

 regarded in the old country as a light 

 dressing. With improvement in know- 

 ledge it hasbeeu found possible to make 

 artificial fertilizers of such quality that 

 5 or 6 cwt. of them would go as far as 10 

 tons of the old bulky stuff. But in our 

 dry districts Ave regarded 5 cwt. as* a 

 heavy dressing, and came down to 2 

 cvvt.jljcwt. and 1 cwt. Still we had 

 not gone far enough. My attention was 

 first directed to the possibility of get- 

 ting out of the cwts., and using only a 

 few lbs. to the acre, by the experience of 

 one of our Victorian wheat-growers, Mr. 

 Salter, who dipped his seed wheat 

 while it was wet from the pickling tub 

 into superphosphate, and thereby got a 

 few. pounds of the material to stick to 

 the seed. He believed he obtained 

 substantial benefit thereby. Several 

 farmers, hearing of his experiments, 

 tried his method, with I believe, on the 

 whole, favourable results. 



Last year I carried out experiments in 

 a dry wheat district with much smaller 

 quantities of manure than I had ever 

 before used, going down to as little as 

 acre. The folio w- 

 been received from 

 Mount Pleasant, St, 



10 



lbs. to the 

 ing results have 

 Mr. Telford, of 

 Arnaud : — 

 April, Reaped 29th December, 



1899. 





Yield per 

 acre. 



Bushels per 

 acre gained by 

 Manure. 



Value of 

 increase at 2s. 

 per bushel. 



Cost of Manure 

 per acre. 



Net gain or 

 loss to farmer. 



Gross gain to 

 the country 

 at 2s. 6d. per 

 bushel. 







s. d. 



s. d. 



s. d. 



s. d. 



s. d. 



Board Plot 



12-73 













1. 10 lbs. concentrated superphos- 















phate 



16-46 



3-84 



7 8 



1 1| 



6 6| 



9 7 



2, No manure 



12-51 













3, 20 lbs. concentrated superphos- 















phate 



18-22 



6 '00 



12 



2 3 



9 9 



15 



4. 30 lbs. concentrated superphos- 















phate 



18-22 



6-29 



12 7 



3 4f 



9 3* 



15 9 



5. No manure 



11-63 













6. 26 lbs. ordinary superphosphate 



15-58 



3-58 



7 2 



1 2 



6 



8 11 



7. 26 lbs. Thomas' phosphate 



13 84 



1-47 



2 11 



1 2 



1 9 



3 8 



8. No. manure 



12-73 













