168 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL, [1 Mar., 1899. 
Asamatter of fact, experiments conducted on plots 121 square yards in 
extent have, as a rule, been found to give much more accurate and reliable 
results than those obtained on larger plots. 
_ At the Hermitage Experiment Farm, near Warwick, during the last season, 
experiments were made on 40 plots ranging in area from} to } of an acre 
and 4.03 named varieties of wheat on these plots occupied an area of about 18 
acres. But certain alkali patches interfered with the experiment here and 
there. 
There is but little difficulty in finding # of an acre in a field that can be 
divided into 25 plots sufficiently uniform in condition; and then the cost of 
the manures is so small, that it is just as little worthy of being taken into 
consideration as the somewhat reduced yields from the plots that are not 
manured, or are insufficiently manured. So, too, the operations of weighing, 
mixing, and distributing the manures, the Jabour of harvesting, the recording 
the harvested weights, &c., &c., are very much lighter than is the case with 
Jarger plots. : 
The next point to engage our attention is, when and how to apply the 
manure. 
The phosphate and potash (in the case of oats) should be mixed, and spread 
at latest before working the soil in the spring. 
The nitrate should be applied half at the time of sowing the seed, and half 
as top: dressing four weeks later. 
When barley is sown with lucerne or clover, the phosphate and potash 
should be applied as for oats, but the nitrate is to be sown with the seed. As 
a matter of course, the action of these manurings will not be restricted to the 
barley, but will be observed, and should be recorded, in connection with the 
following crops of clover or lucerne, inasmuch as it may happen that promi- 
nent activity on the part of the phosphate powder may show on the clover, but 
not on the barley. In the case of mangel wurzel or sugar-beet, the nitrate is 
applied half when sowing or planting out the mangels; the other half at the 
first hoeing. When applied to potatoes, if kainit (potash) is used, it must 
be applied to the preceding crop and not to the potatoes direct, whilst the 
tera is applied half when setting the potatoes and the other half at the first 
oeing. 
Now what about lime in the soil ? No cognisance has been taken of this 
constituent in the professor's experiments here quoted, but an approximate 
estimation of the amount of lime in a soil can very easily be made by the 
farmer without the assistance of the chemist. 
About a teaspoonful of the soil is placed in a suitable glass vessel, and 
upon it is poured a mixture consisting of 1 part of concentrated hydrochloric 
acid and 2 parts of water. If there is a distinct evolution of gas bubbles 
(bubbles of carbonic acid gas), or a definite effervescence, it is quite certain 
that the soil is rich enough to meet the lime requirements of plants. It, 
however, there is a very feeble evolution of gas bubbles, or none at all, then 
lime may be deficient, in which case it is advisable to supplement the manures 
in the eight plots above mentioned by two or three plots, to be dressed each with 
40 Ib. (about 144 cwt. per acre) of lime, and also to add a similar quantity of 
lime to the unmanured plots. Powdered lime is met with in commerce; but if 
lime in lumps is used, the lumps are put in a wicker basket and dipped under 
water for about half-a-minute. The lime is then cast on a heap and left to slack 
until it falls to a dusty powder, which is filled into a sack, and spread over 
the field in the autumn or during the winter months, being cautiously mixed 
with some moist soil before spreading, so as to avoid dust flying during the 
operation. 
Suppose a field, say of turnips, to have reached the period of the last 
cropping before the renewal of a dressing of farmyard manure.. Such a field 
will have attained a maximum degree of exhaustion, and it is obvious that that 
portion of the field that is in the poorest possible manurial condition should be 
selected for the experiment. 
