52 Influence on the Production of Mutton 



The Effects of using Sulphate of Ammonia or Nitrate of Soda 

 along with Superphosphate. 



Of all manures that can be applied to grass-land, sulphate 

 of ammonia and nitrate of soda are the most rapid in their 

 action. Within a few days of their being applied in spring 

 to a pasture or meadow one may have visible proof that 

 they have already stimulated the plants. But not only are 

 these two manures very rapid in their action, they are also 

 the most powerful of any in increasing the yield of the herbage 

 of grass-land. What with rapidity and intensity of action 

 of these two manures it was decided that the matter was of 

 sufficient importance to include sulphate of ammonia amongst 

 the tests at Cockle Park. This manure was selected in pre- 

 ference to nitrate of soda because, while it is not so rapid in- 

 ks action as the latter, it is more persistent, in this respect 

 standing somewhere between nitrate of soda and, say, 

 dissolved bones. Moreover, nitrate of soda, or even "nitrated" 

 herbage, when consumed by stock is said to have undesirable 

 effects on certain of their organs, and for these reasons, there- 

 fore, it was decided to use sulphate of ammonia and not nitrate 

 of soda. 



Sulphate of ammonia having been decided on for Cockle 

 Park, it was therefore used at Sevington and Cransley, and 

 was also included in the scheme for Yeldham. 



The scheme of the West of Scotland College of Agriculture 

 and of the Highland Society did not embrace this point, but 

 it was included in Profesor Wright's Downan experiment,, 

 the manure used there being nitrate of soda. 



In every case the arrangement of the experiment was a 

 very simple one. At the three chief English centres one plot 

 (No. 5) received superphosphate only, applied in the spring 

 of the first and fourth seasons, while another plot (No. 9) 

 got the same amount of superphosphate with the addition 

 of a certain amount of sulphate of ammonia for the first, 

 third, fourth, and seventh seasons. The quantity of sulphate 

 of ammonia employed varied slightly at the different places, 

 because it had to be adjusted to furnish a definite amount of 

 nitrogen, and this, again, depended on the composition of 

 the dissolved bones with which it was compared on another 



