1 Sepr., 1899.1 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 245 
FARM CHEMISTRY—THE USE OF KAINIT. 
Ty the report of the North of England experiments with crops and stocks, the 
following interesting account appears of the use of kainit :— During past years 
it has been shown that in almost every case kainit, or some other kind of 
potash, should form part of an artificial’ mixture for use without dung. This ~ 
matter has again received confirmation in 1898. At Staindrop, 5 ewt. super- 
phosphate plus 13 cwt. sulphate of ammonia produced 16 tons 9 cwt. of swedes, 
while the addition of 2 and 4 ewt. of kainit raised the crop to 17 tons 7 cwt. and 
17 tons 15 ewt. respectively. At Garforth, the first 2 cwt of kainit produced 
an increase of 2 tons 15 ewt. of roots, to which the second 2 ewt. only added 
4. cwt. of roots. Even in the first year the smaller dressing has given a profit, 
though the extra 2 ewt. has only been profitable if it has left considerable 
residue, as experience leads us to believe will be the case. We have again, at 
Cockle Park, had a remarkable example of the value of potash in a turnip 
manure employed without dung. A dressing of 12 ewt. of sulphate of ammonia 
and 7 ewt. superphosphate gave a crop of 8 tons 3 ewt., whereas the crop got 
by the same substances plus 6 ewt. of kainit weighed 25 tons 5 cwt. Itis 
worthy of note that the crop was 5 tons lighter where sulphate of ammonia and 
superphosphate were employed without kainit than it was on the land getting 
no manure whatever. This result is similar to that obtained at the same place 
in 1897, and shows that, in an extreme case, such as is presented at Cockle 
Park, artificial manures without potash used for turnips on tillage land may do 
more harm than good. Why this should be so is an interesting physiological 
question, but one that need not now be discussed. 
CAN LIME ACT AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR POTASH? 
This point was dealt with at Cockle Park. Three contiguous plots were 
dressed with 7 cwt. rape meal and 52 ewt. basic slag, and in addition one plot 
received 6 cwt. kainit, another 1 ton of ground lime, while the third got both 
the kainit and the lime. The result was that— 
Swedes. 
Tons cwt, 
Rape meal and slag + kainit wwe: ts gave 21 14 
‘, 3 + lime ox hy ny Ie 
ie & + kainit and lime .., no BO 
Clearly, therefore, lime has proved but a poor substitute for kainit, though 
that it has done something is evident from the fact that the plot getting phos- 
phate and nitrogen but no potash gave a yield of only 8 tons 3 cwt. Where 
used in the presence of potash the lime has considerably reduced the yield, a 
result that reminds us of a similar experiment conducted in 1895. 
EFFECTS OF KAINIT WITH FARMYARD MANURE 
At Staindrop 4 cwt. of kainit was used as an addition to dung and phos- 
phatic-nitrogenous artificials, and raised the yield from 18 tons 11 ewt. (average 
3 plots) to 19 tons. At Garforth the increase was 3 ewt. At Peepy and 
Whitefield 4 ewt. kainit was similarly used, and produced an average increase 
of 13 cwt. at the former station, and of 18 ewt. at the latter. At Cockle Park 
6 cwt. kainit added to dung and artificials increased the crop by 11 ewt. per 
acre, though 3 cwt. apparently failed to produce an increase. Although kainit 
has thus done little or nothing in the presence of dung to increase the yield of 
swedes, its position in this respect is not materially different from that of other 
artificials. 
EFFECT OF KAINIT ON POTATOES. 
The addition of 74 ewt. of mixed artificials, without potash, to 15 tons of 
farmyard manure has produced an average increase of 62 cwt. of marketable 
potatoes. The addition of 1 ewt. of sulphate of potash, costing 9s. to the other 
artificials, used with dung, has resulted in a pereeel increase of crop on both 
sets of plots. The average improvement in the “ ware” was over 13 tons in the 
