494 Summary of Agricultural Experiments, [sept., 



sheep were drenched, and the mortality from the disease was 200, or 

 4*6 per cent. It is stated that the season of 1907-8 was an unusually 

 bad one as regards these diseases, the losses among undrenched sheep 

 in Co. Wicklow averaging about 15 per cent., and in some cases going 

 as high as 50 per cent. On two farms where absolutely reliable 

 accounts of the deaths among drenched and undrenched sheep could 

 be obtained, the mortality among the former from braxy was 2*5 per 

 cent., and among the latter 1377 per cent. 



As regards louping ill, the treatment was not always so successful. 

 On one farm, out of 246 ewes drenched, only five died before the new 

 year, an enormous reduction in the usual mortality, while with the 

 advent of the louping-ill season the mortality became serious, and 37 

 died before the end of winter. Dr. Hamilton found that a second 

 drenching later in the year than August was desirable for louping ill, 

 and these experiments also suggest that this may be necessary. 



Value of Liquid Manure (Jour. Dept. of Agric. and Tech. Instruc. 

 for Ireland, April, 1910). — It is generally agreed that a great waste of 

 fertilising material takes place in this country owing to the small use 

 made of liquid manure, yet great difference of opinion exists as to 

 whether it pays to cart it out. Some experiments have recently been 

 carried out by the Irish Department of Agriculture to determine its 

 value in comparison with farmyard manure and artificials, and to ascer- 

 tain whether the increase of crop produced would repay the cost of 

 carting the liquid manure. Four plots of £ acre each in an old 

 meadow that had grown hay for six years previously with artificial 

 manure alone were selected. One plot was untreated, one received 

 21 tons of liquid manure per acre, half in the first week in February and 

 half in the last week in April, one received 16 tons of farmyard manure, 

 and the fourth plot 1 cwt. nitrate of soda, 3 cwt. superphosphate (30 

 per cent, phosphate), and 2 cwt. kainit. The experimental plots were 

 about 650 yards from the liquid manure tank. The liquid manure was 

 conveyed to the field in a loo-gallon oil barrel fixed on the wheels, axle 

 and shafts of an old cart. Distribution was effected by means of a 

 V-shaped trough attached to the end of the cart and perforated with a 

 number of holes to spread the liquid. In the year in which the manures 

 were applied the increase in crop on the manured plots over the un- 

 manured plot was : — Liquid manure, 1 ton 6 cwt. per acre ; farmyard 

 manure, 16 cwt. ; artificials, 17 cwt. The next year the plots were left 

 untreated, and the increases due to the residue of the manures in the 

 soil were respectively, liquid manure, 7^ cwt. per acre, farmyard manure, 

 11^ cwt.; and artificials, i| cwt. The total increases were thus: — 

 Liquid manure, 1 ton 13^ cwt. per acre ; farmyard manure, 1 ton 7^ cwt. ; 

 artificials, i8| cwt. As was to be expected, the residual value of the 

 liquid manure, as shown by the crop in the second year of the trial, 

 was less than that of the farmyard manure. The artificials appear to 

 have been exhausted in the first year. 



An attempt is made in the report of this experiment to estimate 

 the profitableness or otherwise of the applications. The increase in the 

 crop of hay produced is valued at £2 per ton, and at this rate each 

 ton of liquid manure used gave a return of 35. 2d., while the return 

 from the farmyard manure was 35. 5^. Valuing the hay at ^3 per 

 ton, these amounts would be 45. gd. and 55. id. respectively. As regards 



