4 8 



Manuring of Meadow Hay. 



was initiated by the Agricultural Department of the York- 

 shire College at Garforth and other centres in Yorkshire with 

 the object of ascertaining what kinds of artificial manures 

 could be most profitably employed on meadow land in the 

 season when no dung is applied. 



The results of two years' experiments have shown that 

 meadow land may be depended upon to respond to an annual 

 dressing of dung, and in each year to leave a considerable 

 margin of profit after half t he cost of the dung has been 

 charged to the crop of hay. Dung applied once in every two 

 years influenced very largely the hay crop of the second 

 year as well as that of the first ; the resulting profit was 

 practically as good as where dung had been applied every 

 year, since only half the expense had been incurred. This is 

 attributed to the effects of the unexhausted portion of the 

 dung remaining from the first year. 



The experiments also showed that in cases where, in the 

 year following an application of dung, dung cannot again be 

 spared for meadow land, artificial manures may be used most 

 profitably. Under these conditions, the results seemed to 

 indicate that, following so closely after dung, potash may be 

 omitted, as the best results were obtained from a mixture cf 

 i J cwt. nitrate of soda and 2 cwt. of superphosphate. In 

 cases where dung is replaced entirely by artificials, nitrogen, 

 phosphate, and potash must be included in the mixture. 

 The heaviest average crop for the two years was got from 

 an annual dressing of ih cwt. nitrate of soda, 2 cwt. super- 

 phosphate, and 3 cwt. kainit. In Yorkshire, nitrate of soda, 

 as compared with sulphate of ammonia, has given uniformly 

 better results. 



A second scheme of experiments was designed to determine 

 what proportion of nitrate of soda, superphosphate, and kainit 

 respectively would furnish the most profitable artificial 

 dressing for the hay crop. These experiments were com- 

 menced in 1899 on identical lines at several centres in 

 Yorkshire and Lancashire, the work in the latter county 

 being carried out under the direction of Mr. F. P. Walker, of 

 the Harris Institute, Preston. The results obtained in both 

 counties showed that the average effects of the two years' 



