32 Experiments with Potatoes. [april, 



now being carried out at Lauchstadt with a view of ascertaining 

 whether the fallowing of the soil promotes the collection of 

 nitrogen and the activity of the bacteria to a greater extent than 

 green manuring or other method. 



The employment of green manuring on medium and heavy 

 soils has many opponents, but several German agriculturists 

 appear to have practised it with remarkable success for many 

 years. In one instance, on clay, the cost is said to be less than 

 one-half that of farmyard manure, and the yield of sugar beet 

 has been increased by 2| tons per acre. An experiment 

 conducted on loam by Dr. Scheidewind showed also on the 

 average of four years an increase of nearly 2 J tons of sugar 

 beet. Manuring with nitrate gave on the four years rather 

 more leaf-development, but no more roots or sugar, and the 

 cost of the nitrate was greater. 



Among the crops suitable for green manuring, Dr. Schnider 

 draws especial attention to serradella, which is much grown on 

 the sandy soils of Northern Germany. It is said to be also 

 suitable for medium and even heavy soils, and it is claimed that 

 by its use an equivalent amount of nitrogen can be introduced 

 into the soil at very much less cost than by farmyard manure. 



Green manuring has also been successfully employed in 

 orchards and hop gardens. In New South Wales the practice 

 of sowing tares and peas in the early autumn among the trees in 

 the Government orchards and ploughing the crop in has been 

 found to give satisfactory results. At one of these orchards the 

 character of the soil, which was formerly very harsh and stubborn,, 

 has, it is stated, been improved almost beyond recognition ; and 

 at the Hawkesbury Agricultural College, where the soil was almost 

 pure sand, excellent fruit crops have been obtained owing to the 

 addition to the soil of humus obtained by green manuring. 



Experiments with potatoes have been conducted during the 

 past seven years by the University of Leeds in order to test the: 

 productiveness and quality of a number of 



withpSel. the best knovvn varieties 011 the market. 



Subsidiary experiments hava also been 

 undertaken to determine the influence upon the crop of 



