Use of Artificial Manures. 



437 



district where the best class of brewing barley cannot be hoped 

 for — a moderate dressing of nitrogen may be given ; and, as 

 barley soils are usually light, sulphate of ammonia (f — I cwt. 

 per acre) will suit better than nitrate of soda. To improve the 

 quality, though also to add to the bulk, both phosphates and 

 potash may frequently be used with advantage, but it is very 

 necessary for the farmer to determine the point by experiment. 

 On typical barley soils dissolved bones and Peruvian guano are 

 also suitable. A barley manure may therefore consist of about 

 (per acre) : — 



| cwt. sulp. ammon. ^or 3 cwt. dis. bones 



2 cwt. super. J or ijcwt. Peruvian guano 



2 cwt. kainit 



All of which may be mixed together and applied with the seed. 



Oats are often grown on the poorest classes of tillage land, 

 and, moreover — coming, as they do in many cases, before 

 roots, and therefore removed as far as possible from the point in 

 the rotation when dung is used — they find but small supplies of 

 food in the soil. They are often, too, sown after land has been 

 some years in grass, and when, consequently, there is a tough 

 sod ; and a heavy straw crop can do much to mellow the soil and 

 make it work down kindly for the following root crop. If, as is 

 often the case, oats are grown in a wettish district, sulphate of 

 ammonia (say 1 cwt. per acre) may be used. In other cases, and 

 especially if a weak plant is to be helped by top-dressing, 

 nitrate of soda ( 1 — i| cwt.) will be more serviceable. Phosphates 

 will not usually add much to the bulk, but they will make harvest 

 somewhat earlier, and in a typical oat district this is of impor- 

 tance. Two cwt. of superphosphate may therefore often be used 

 with advantage. Only on very light land is it likely that potash 

 will pay on this crop. 



Rye is too unimportant to be treated in detail, but as it is 

 usually grown on the lighter and poorer soils it may be treated 

 as for oats. 



Maize is now grown to a considerable extent for fodder. It 

 should either follow a well-dunged root crop or receive a 

 moderate direct dressing of dung. In either case the artificials 

 may consist of 1 to 2 cwt. of nitrate of soda or sulphate of 

 ammonia, and 2 to 3 cwt. of superphosphate. 



