1 Dec., 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 477 
MANURES. 
In reply to inquiry made by the Gumeracha Branch-of the South Australian 
Bureau of Agriculture, Professor Lowrie wrote to the following effect :— 
There can be little satisfaction in adhering to any definite formula in the use 
of manures; soils vary so much and are impoverished so variously according to 
the character of the cropping to which they have been submitted that the farmer 
must exercise his own judgment and read his fields carefully, to be guided both 
in regard to kinds and quantities of manure to apply. 
Wheat.—(a.) Phosphatic manure alone, about 2 cwt. per acre. The 
chief phosphatic manures are bonedust, superphosphates (bone or mineral), 
basic slag, and phosphatic guano. (d.) For land deficient in nitrogen: 
(1) 13 ewt. to 1} ewt. super., and 4} cwt. to 1 ewt. sulphate of ammonia; 
(2) 2 cwt. basic slag and 4 cwt. to } ewt. nitrate of soda; (3) 14 ewt. to 
2 ewt. bonedust, and 4 ewt. to # ewt. nitrate of soda or sulphate of ammonia. 
Sour land may require quicklime, also light sand ; apply this in dressings of 2 
tons or thereabouts per acre. Occasionally light lands may also require 
potash, and the mixture might be some such as 1} ewt. super. or bonedust, 
~ cwt. to ¢ ewt. sulphate of ammonia, and 3 cwt. wood ashes or 14 cwt. kainit. 
Lighter or heavier dressings may be made according to condition of the land. 
Potatoes.—(a) Wood ashes in abundance or kainit or sulphate of potash. 
Muriate of potash is said to cause waxy potatoes; (b) 4 cwt. to 5 ewt. wood 
ashes and:3 ewt. to 4 cwt. or more of super. or bonedust per acre (see note re 
mixing ashes and super.) ; (c) 4:cwt. to 5 ewt. wood ashes with 3 cwt. bonedust 
and 1 ewt. of nitrate of soda—this is a substantial dressing for colonial 
practice, but light compared with practice in older countries; (¢) farmyard 
manure, and plenty of it, invariably enhances the yield greatly, but is said to 
make potatees scabby. 
Lucerne.—Bonedust in abundance—4 ewt. up to 10 ewt. according to crop 
yielded —applied annually at the time the lucerne is cultivated in the winter. 
Gypsum also is useful, as is quicklime in good heavy dressings occasionally, 
not in hundredweights but in tons; 2 tons is generally little enough. 
Swedes.—Superphosphate in abundance. 
Mangolds.—Nitrogenous salts especially. A good dressing is: Farmyard 
manure, 8 tons to 10 tons per, acre ; 1} cwt. bonedust or super.; and 1 cwt. 
suena of ammonia or nitrate of soda, together with 2 cwt. to 3 ewt. common 
salt. 
Incompatibles (t.e., Should not be mixed).—(a) Nitrate of soda and 
super. ; (0) super. and quicklime; (c) basic slag and sulphate of ammonia; 
(d) lime and sulphate of ammonia; (e) wood ashes and super. should not be 
mixed long before application, and are better applied separately. 
PHYLLOXERA DEFEATED. 
Ir has been reported to the Academy of Science, at Paris, by M. Dubois, that 
he has succeeded in discovering a micro-organism which kills phylloxera and 
kindred pests. The bodies of the insects so killed contained when inspected 
a great many bacteria; but the poisonous qualities of the organisms seem to 
difter according to the nature of the soil and the weather. Dubois placed two 
roots of vines containing phylloxera upon blotting-paper, and sowed bacteria 
on to them. Hight other roots he put into vessels filled with earth, and sowed 
bacteria on these also. After two days all the phylloxera were dead on the 
two roots on the blotting-paper; after five days on the eight roots ; while those 
two roots which had not received any bacteria had plenty of living phylloxera 
on them. Others could also detect bacteria within the bodies of the dead 
phylloxera in some instances. 
