326 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



peat being used in this series at the rate of I ton to the acre, and it 

 was found that the farmyard manure gave in each case a heavier 

 yield (p. 317). 



(7) The experiments in Series 4 were inconclusive (p. 321). 



(8) Series 5 was a partial repetition of Series 2 with another 

 sample of peat in 1915. The increase obtained when peat was added 

 to the soil was only 2 per cent., and when peat and lime were both 

 added 5J per cent., a result practically negligible, taking into considera- 

 tion the cost of the application (p. 321). 



(9) It is clear from our experiments that the full results are seen 

 from the use of peat only when the supply of water is abundant, but 

 the results in Series 2 and 5 were probably only slightly interfered 

 with on this account, and in Series 1 and 3 this factor was eliminated. 



(10) The results on the whole show that when prepared under the 

 best conditions bacterized peat is capable of acting as a very effective 

 manure, but the meagre results obtained in the different series of 

 experiments outdoors point either to a great variability in the com- 

 position of the different samples of the peat sent us, or to the action 

 of some chemical constituent alone, possibly the nitrogen, the nitrogen 

 being probably much below the quantity shown in the analysis 

 quoted. 



(n) The report we are able to make on it applies merely to 

 the samples with which our experiments were carried out, and there 

 is nothing to show that other samples would give the same results- 



(12) It is also clear that if a sample could always be relied upon 

 to be of the same quality as the first received the value of the material 

 for plants in pots would be great, but it seems apparent that 

 Professor Bottomley is still experimenting with the material and 

 has not yet settled upon a fixed product or a fixed method of pre- 

 paring it. 



(13) We are not informed of the cost of the prepared peat, and 

 can therefore make no comparison of it from an economic point of 

 view.* 



* Since this report was completed the book referred to in the footnote on p. 311 

 has been published {The Spirit of the Soil, by G. D. Knox), and we are there 

 informed that the price has been fixed at ^10 a ton for the time being, though 

 it may be considerably less " when the substance is dealt with commercially " 

 (p. 154). We are not told whether the cost includes carriage to the garden in 

 which it is to be used or not — a point of considerable importance to market 

 gardeners, and to others who use large quantities of manure. 



We are told also (p. 154) that the value of " the available plant food in peat, 

 as compared with that in rotted stable manure, is as between fifty and eighty 

 to one." 



In the experiments in Series 3 described above (p. 315) we were able to compare 

 the results obtained by dressing with peat (1 ton) with those obtained by the 

 addition of 20 tons of farmyard manure which would cost delivered £8. _ In 

 each case where comparison was possible farmyard manure gave a heavier yield 

 than the bacterized peat which would cost more. 



