1904.] 



Manurial Experiments in Canada. 



205 



all stabled during the whole of the year makes it possible to save 

 all the manure, both liquid and solid, and the fact that it 

 is applied daily as produced insures that materials washed out by 

 rain are carried into the soil where they are wanted. How much 

 plant food is lost from fermentation after the manure is spread 

 on the fields is not known, but the remarkable yields of every 

 portion of this farm would seem to indicate that this method of 

 dealing with the manure is highly satisfactory under the special 

 circumstances. 



At the Canadian Experimental Farms some manurial 

 experiments have been carried out for a period of fourteen 

 or fifteen years with a view to testing 

 Manurial the application of the principal fertilisers 



it is interesting to notice that these trials appear to show that 

 farmyard manure can be most economically used in a fresh or 

 unrotted condition. Fresh manure was found to be equal 

 ton for ton in crop-producing power to rotted manure, which, 

 as other experiments are stated to have shown, loses during the 

 process of rotting about 60 per cent, of its weight. In the case 

 of wheat and barley there was practically no difference in yields 

 obtained from plots treated with dung either fresh or rotted, 

 while the oat yield from the plot which received fresh dung was 

 several bushels larger. 



After constant cropping for ten or eleven years it was found 

 that the soil on those plots to which no farmyard manure had 

 been applied was much depleted of humus, and hence its power 

 of holding moisture had been lessened and the conditions for 

 plant growth, apart from the question of plant food, had on 

 this account become less favourable. In the spring of 1899, 

 10 lb. of red clover seed per acre was sown with the grain 

 on all the plots of wheat, barley and oats. The clover seed 

 germinated well, and after the grain was cut the young clover 

 plants made rapid growth, and by the middle of October there 

 was a thick mat of foliage which was then ploughed under. 

 In 1900 the fertilisers on all the plots were discontinued, and 



Experiments 

 in Canada. 



on the more important grain crops. 

 In connection with the preceding article 



