5 l6 



Lupins for Green Manuring. [oct., 



The cost of production is high, being not less than £20 per 

 statute acre. The actual cost in some cases has been at least 

 double this sum. The cost in any given case will depend 

 mainly on the class of tobacco grown, the nature of the equip- 

 ment, the methods of culture, curing and handling, and the 

 thoroughness with which the work is carried out. 



The operations to be performed in the cultivation of tobacco 

 can be speedily learned, though a certain horticultural skill; 

 which is not possessed by the average farmer is required. 

 The curing and finishing for market, however, involve a 

 number of complicated processes demanding technical skill 

 of a high order, which can be acquired only by men of con- 

 siderable intelligence and which is not to be expected among 

 farmers generally. 



The use of lupins as a green manure is very common on the 

 light sandy soils of Germany, and it was this crop which was 

 so successfully used by Schultz on his 



Lupins for Green farm at Lupitz where, what was after- 

 Manuring, wards known as the Lupitz method, was 

 first practised. (See Journal, Vol. xii, 

 p. 29, April, 1905, and Vol. xiv, p. 231, July, 1907.) Lupins 

 being a leguminous crop supply the soil, when used for green 

 manuring, with nitrogen in an easily available form for the 

 use of the following crop, and where poor sandy soil occurs in 

 England they might usefully be tried. The seed should be 

 sown in the latter half of May, ij to 2 bushels being drilled 

 per acre in rows 14 to 15 inches apart. The plants should be 

 ploughed in before the seed begins to form and must not be 

 allowed to die down. 



Sheep may be folded on the lupins if the crop is not needed 

 as green manure. The yield of seed is from 20 to 30 bushels 

 and of green fodder 15 to 16 tons per acre. The seed, while 

 much used for stock-feeding in some countries, is occasionally 

 poisonous. The blue lupin is best suited for field culture, but 

 the yellow lupin is also occasionally grown. 



Where this crop is grown for the first time, it might be 

 desirable to use " Nitragin " for inoculating the seed so that 

 the soil may be supplied with the proper organism. Nitragin 

 for the blue lupin, Lupinus Angustifolius, or for the yellow lupin, 



