MANURING EXPERIMENTS WITH PADDY RICE. 
3 
first applied with excellent success by P. Wagner, we carried 
out in the summer of 1889 a series of manuring experiments 
with paddy rice, for the purpose of determining what quantities 
of assimilable nutrients are needed by this crop under the 
conditions of the soil in our neighbourhood, reserving the 
researches on the availability of various forms of nitrogenous 
and phosphatic fertilizers till next year. 
The soil of the experimental field chiefly consists of volcanic 
ashes, and resembles in its physical properties a sandy loam. 
It has a good capacity for imbibing and conducting water, and 
swells up a little when copiously moistened, but does not 
exhibit any considerable plastic condition ; hence its surface, 
in times of scanty rain, forms to a depth of 1—2 inches a 
dry porous light mass liable to be blown about by the wind. 
Its chemical condition is illustrated by an analysis made in 
conjunction with H. Imai in 1882. 2 
The air-dry soil contained : 
Topsoil. 
Subsoil. 
Hygroscopic water 
.H- 3 ° % 
12.84 % 
Loss on ignition... 
.22.30 „ 
18.79 „ 
Humus. 
. 9 - 9 6 ». 
8.86 ,, 
Nitrogen . 
cn 
00 
6 
O.799 » 
Combined water... 
.11-85 ,, 
9-13 »» 
In 100 parts of soil free from water there was found : 3 
2 Landvv. Versuchsstationen, vol. 30, 1883, p. 1. 
3 This analysis was made in the usual way ; the remainder left after the ex¬ 
traction with hot hydrochloric acid was treated with concentrated sulphuric 
acid, and the substance insoluble in the latter reagent was dissolved in 
hydrofluoric acid. 
