202 On Permanent and Temporary Meadoics and Pastures. 
limit ourselves to furnisliing bj manures, slightly soluble, 
and therefore cheap, the quantities of those elements which are 
necessary to the crop. If it is poor in one or several of the 
elements, we should begin by giving a dressing of each element 
in a somewhat soluble form, and should moreover restore to it 
year by year, by means of soluble manures, the elements taken 
away by the removal of the crops. 
Phosphoric Acid is offered to farmers in three forms, viz. 
fossil phosphates, precipitated phosphate, and superphosphates. 
Fossil phosphates contain phosphoric acid combined with lime, 
are cheap, and very suitable for restoring this indispensable 
element to rich soils, or for establishing a stock of it in poor soils. 
When the soil is sour, they partially neutralise this quality and 
become soluble ; but it ought never to be laid down to grass 
until the sourness has been completely neutralised. 
In ordinary soils the phosphates of lime become soluble 
slowly, under the influence of carbonic acid, organic matters, 
&c., with which they come in contact. But this slow transfor- 
mation is sufficient to supply the quantity of phosphoric acid 
necessary to the actual crop when the soil is fairly rich in it. 
For every soil, which on analysis shows only 0"05 per cent, of 
phosphoric acid, or 15 "9 cwt. to the acre in a layer of 7*874 
inches deep, it is advisable to plough-in a certain amount of 
fossil-phosphate, before attempting to form permanent grass- 
land ; it is an opportunity not to be lost for distributing this 
fertilising agent at various depths in the soil. The most suit- 
able phosphates to use are those which contain from 30 per 
cent, to 50 per cent, of tricalcic phosphate, say from 14 per cent, 
to 23 per cent, of phosphoric acid. From 16 cwt. to 2 tons per 
acre should be applied, according to the richness of the soil, as 
shown by analysis, and the quality of the phosphate employed ; 
so that the soil may be provided with from 267 to 892 lbs. of 
phosphoric acid to the acre, as may be considered necessary. 
This phosphate should be applied in the finest possible powder, 
and sown broadcast on the soil before the ploughing which 
precedes the sowing of the seed. If the grass-land is to be sown 
with a cereal, the phosphate should be applied before sowing 
the corn. The expense in phosphate should be charged to the 
cost of the formation of the grass-land, to be liquidated during 
the number of years it lasts. It would be incorrect to charge it 
entirely to the first crop, since it acts as a provision for future 
crops also. 
On soils which contain more than 0 05 per cent, of phosphoric 
acid, it will be sufficient to give in an assimilable form 89 lbs. 
to the acre, that is to say, enough to supply the first, and even 
