1910.] Summary of Agricultural Experiments. 399 



between the limed and unlimed portions of the plots that have become 

 acid through the long-continued use of ammonium salts. On the acid 

 portions the patches of dead herbage are extending, while the limed 

 portions have come back to a normal appearance. 



Manuring of Grass Land (Roy. Agric. Coll., Cirencester, Scientific 

 Bulletin, No. i, 1909). — Experiments on the manuring of grass that is 

 mown for hay each year have been carried out on sixteen plots for 

 twenty years, and on four other plots for seventeen years. The soil is a 

 calcareous loam, rich in potash and nitrogen, and with a fair amount 

 of phosphates, but varying considerably in depth and texture, and 

 especially in the amount of carbonate of lime contained in it. The 

 same manures were used each year. The main conclusion drawn is 

 that on this soil no one simple manure, e.g., phosphates alone, is 

 economically effective on grass. Phosphates and nitrogen are required, 

 and this, or a mixture with the addition of a little kainit, gives a 

 remunerative return during a series of years. The mixture which gave 

 the best results, taking the average of twenty years, was superphosphate, 

 5 cwt. ; kainit, 5 cwt. ; and nitrate of soda, i\ cwt. This produced a 

 crop of 375 cwt. per acre, compared with 19I cwt. on the unmanured 

 plot, an increase of 18 cwt. The same quantities of superphosphate 

 and nitrate of soda without the kainit gave nearly as good results, 

 the increase being 17! cwt. per acre. It is recommended that in actual 

 practice rather smaller quantities of the artificials should be used, and 

 that they should be applied earlier in the season than is the usual 

 custom. With 12 tons of farmyard manure the average increase over 

 the unmanured plot was nearly 16 cwt. per acre, the same result being 

 given by 5 cwt. each of superphosphate and kainit and 2 cwt. of sulphate 

 of ammonia. The quality of the hay was usually better, however, with 

 sulphate of ammonia than with nitrate of soda. On this soil super- 

 phosphate appears to be generally preferable to basic slag. In the 

 report physical and chemical analyses of the soil are given, and the 

 crop on the different plots in each year since 1889 is shown. 



Manuring of Meadow Land (Field Expts. at Harper Adams Agric. 

 Coll. and in Staffs, and Salop, Kept., 1909). — The effect of continuous 

 manuring of meadow land mown each season is being ascertained on 

 a pasture on stiff clay loam. Ten plots have been manured, in most 

 cases every year, since 1903, and two more were added in 1908. They 

 are mown each season, and grazed during the winter months. In 1909 

 the crop, with no manure, . amounted to only 12 cwt. per acre. The 

 greatest increase on this was obtained on the plot receiving 3 cwt. super- 

 phosphate and on that with 3! cwt. basic slag, the crop in both cases 

 being 1 ton 10 cwt., and the profit £1 16s. io\d. per acre and 

 £1 175. 9|d. per acre respectively. The quality of the herbage on all 

 the plots where superphosphate has been used is very greatly improved, 

 and this, together with the value of the aftermath, would increase the 

 profitableness of the manuring. 



Another experiment was begun in 1909 to test the value of the 

 new potassic superphosphate manure. Four cwt. of this gave better 

 results than either 365 lb. superphosphate and 81 lb. kainit, or 365 lb. 

 superphosphate alone, but at a rather greater cost. 



Manuring of Grass Land (Univ. Coll., Reading; Bui. vii., Results of 

 Expts. at the College Farm, 1909; Bui. v., Expts. conducted for the 



