<)<)8 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HOKTKTI/niRAL SOCIETY. 



continued generous and public-spirited aid of the Committee which 

 enabled us to establish it, to carry it on for many years to come. 



It may be mentioned that the scope of our experiments has been since 

 extended to the manuring of Hops and of various other agricultural crops. 

 But at the present moment we are not concerned with that part of our 

 work. 



The Soil. 



Having selected the farm on which to establish the experiment 

 station, the next step was to select the ground. The surface soil of our 

 farm varies very much in richness, and we considered that, for experi- 

 mental purposes, it would be desirable to select as poor a field as 

 possible and one as free as possible from the influence of previous 

 manuring. We therefore chose a large arable field which, within recent 

 times at any rate, had not been under hop or fruit culture, but which 

 had been treated as ordinary arable land. Those who are familiar with 

 the habits of hop farmers will know that, as a rule, no very great affec- 

 tion is lavished by them on such portion of the farm as is not, either 

 presently or prospectively, regarded as hop land. The field in question 

 had been only just sufficiently manured to enable it to bear fairly 

 passable crops in ordinary rotation, while its natural or "inherent" 

 fertility was probably not unfairly indicated by the name which the field 

 bears on the plan of the estate, namely, " Snatchlands." 



The soil of our main experimental field, as many readers of this 

 report will already be aware, is a poor clay loam of lightish colour, 

 resting upon a deep bed of heavy clay. The field selected for the experi 

 incuts had been under ordinary arable cultivation for a large number of 

 years, and was well known for its natural infertility. On this latter 

 ground it was considered an excellent soil for the purposes of experiment, 

 and it is satisfactory to be able to record that, as an effect of the spade 

 Culture which is necessary in experimental plot work like ours, and of 

 assiduous manuring, we have succeeded in converting the field into a fertile 

 market garden. 



The natural poverty of the soil will be indicated to chemists by the 

 following analysis, which was made at tho beginning of our experimental 

 period : — 



Silica and silicious matters undissolved by strong hydrochloric acid from 



the ignited soil 89-120 



Matters dissolved by strong hydrochloric acid from the ignited soil : — 



Oxide of Iron • 3*396 



Alumina 2*680 



Lime 0-313 



Magnesia 0*200 



Potash 0-219 



Soda 0-187 



Phosphoric Acid 0*084 



Sulphuric Acid 0*034 



Water of combination, organic matter, Ac 3*767 



100*000 



Nitrogen .. 0*101 



