160 Value of a Complete Manure for Hay. [june, 



gen and potash proved to be equally or even more necessary, 

 so that where swedes are to be manured with artificials only 

 it is considered safer, as a rule, to apply a complete manure- 

 Superphosphate gave, on the average, a slightly better crop 

 than basic slag, but the latter, owing to its smaller cost, was more 

 profitable, while a mixture of the two manures was still more so. 

 Dung alone did not prove so profitable as artificials alone when 

 the whole cost of the manure was charged against the crop, while 

 the addition of artificials to farmyard manure resulted in a loss 

 throughout. 



In the manuring of hay more than of any other crop on the 



farm, the all but common practice is to apply an incomplete 



manure containing nitrogen alone in the 



• « Value of a form of nitrate of soda or sulphate of am- 

 Complete Manure . c .\ , c , 



for Hay. monia. 1 he reason for this is to be found 



in the ready response of this crop to a 

 dressing of nitrogen, and the consequent deduction that any- 

 thing further added would mean so much waste. Experiments 

 conducted in 1904 by the Edinburgh and East of Scotland 

 College of Agriculture showed that the yield was in every case 

 increased so much by the addition of phosphates and potash to 

 the nitrogen as to more than repay the cost of the extra dress- 

 ing, and in the Report by Mr. W. Allan, it is observed that 

 even where this only is effected there can be no question as to 

 the advisability of applying a complete manure. It has the 

 great advantage of preventing the exhausting effects on the soil 

 of nitrate of soda, for if phosphates and potash are not applied 

 along with the nitrate these constituents are removed by the 

 crop, thereby reducing by so much the fertility of the soil. 

 Another important point is its bearing on the -quality of the 

 produce. The general manure produced a firmer and better 

 developed plant, and, consequently, hay of better quality than 

 that produced by nitrogen alone. 



