434 



Use of Artificial Manures. 



manurial requirements of his own particular holding may be. 

 And, not only so, but if his land is variable in character he 

 should take steps to become acquainted with the peculiarities of 

 every field. To rest satisfied with less is to conduct his business 

 in a haphazard fashion. His practice may be right, but there is 

 a great chance that it will be wrong, and a serious error in 

 judgment may result in heavy pecuniary loss. To some it may 

 seem an extreme recommendation to make that every farmer 

 should be an experimenter, but nothing less will meet the 

 necessities of the case. What with the extra labour involved in 

 measuring and weighing, and the loss in yield that some of the 

 methods of treatment may entail, experimenting cannot be done 

 without expense ; but for ordinary practical purposes £$ 

 will go a long way towards obtaining information that may be 

 worth many times this sum. The land must be measured, and 

 the manures must be weighed and properly mixed and applied, 

 and although the experiment cannot be said to be complete till 

 the produce has been weighed, an experienced farmer can often 

 estimate with the eye with sufficient accuracy what the result of 

 his experiments has been. 



The set of experiments known as " The Eight Plot Test " is 

 that which gives the greatest amount of information for the 

 number of plots involved. It supplies four answers to each of 

 the three questions : Shall I use (a) Nitrogen? (b) Phosphate? 

 (c) Potash ? It may be carried out with any nitrogenous manure 

 {e.g., nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia), with any phos- 

 phatic manure (e.g., superphosphate or basic slag), and with any 

 potassic manure (e.g., kainit or sulphate of potash). Suppose 

 that the first-mentioned of each of these pairs is employed, and 

 that the crop is turnips, the eight plots may be treated per acre 

 as follows : — 



1. No manure. 



2. 1 cwt. nitrate of soda. 



3. 5 cwt. superphosphate. 



4. 3 cwt. kainit. 



5. I cwt. nitrate and 5 cwt. super. 



6. 1 cwt. nitrate and 3 cwt. kainit. 



7. 5 cwt. super, and 3 cwt. kainit. 



8. 1 cwt. nitrate, 5 cwt. super., and 3 cwt. kainit. 



