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A5A QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Sunn, 1900. 
“The other institutions (the existence of which few persons are aware of) 
located in this building, are the Government training and practising schools am 
the school of forestry. But of these I have no excuse to say anything to-day. 
The Government dairy, however, is more intimately connected with the schoo 
of agriculture, and I am able to report that it has been working satisfactorily 
during the past year. We haye now in the dairy 82 cows, 72 calves, and seve? 
bulls, or a total of 161 animals. 
“The net profit from the dairy on last year's working was nearly R2,500, 
while that from the model farm exceeded R3,000. In addition to this, a sum 
of R4,337 was realised by the sale of stock, principally young stock bred on the 
farm. The dairy has now paid back to Government the sum of R119 
advanced for working of the concern; over and above which it has refunded # 
sum of nearly R13,000, against an initial expenditure of R19,539 on buildings 
and equipment. But then our stock-in-trade was at the end of last year reasol+ 
ably estimated to be worth R18,500, a sum, which, I think, the most cautious 
speculator would be willing to give for it. But, while all this is very satisfac 
tory, the School of Agriculture, of which the dairy is an offshoot, derives 1° 
advantage by the prosperity of the latter.” 
LIME IN AGRICULTURE. 
As corroborating the article in this issue of the Journal on the value ot 
lime in agriculture, we quote the following from the Zropical Agriculturist, 
Colombo :— 
On Lord Rosebery’s Scottish estates at Dalmeny Park, a thoroughly well- 
equipped experimental station was established in the spring of 1895, with Mr. 
Hunter as scientific adviser, the practical work being under the personal supe! 
vision of Mr. Drysdale. Part of the station was devoted to testing the relative 
roductiveness of different varieties of grain, potatoes, &e., another part wa* 
eyoted to bacteriological research work, and the remainder of the station wa* 
worked as a miniature ‘farm on the four-course rotation, each section bets 
subdivided into sixteen plots, which were all differently manured on a regu! ar 
system. A good-sized volume would be required to detail the results, which 
have been most consistent throughout, obtained at this station in the last fout 
years, during which time the station has been annually visited by hundreds of 
deeply interested agriculturists. A few of the more notable results may Ye 
briefly summarised. In the first season the beneficial results of a small dressg 
of ground lime were so marked that the system of applying to every field on the 
farm an annual dressing of 4 cwt. of lime was commenced, and has bee? 
continued ever since. In order that the small dressing should be e ually 
distributed over the soil, Mr. Hunter procured ground Jime—i.c., ordinary 
burned lime shells mechanically ground to a fine state of division. At first, this 
ground lime was applied in the compost form, but the second year’s experience 
showed that it was equally effective and less costly when applied direct in the 
hot state when the land was being worked, the small quantity of hot lime 
applied being insufficient to injure the nittifying and other soil orgamism®s 
besides being rapidly converted into the carbonate form when worked into thé 
soil. It was also found that when the lime required by the nitrifying and othe? 
soil organisms was thus supplied, the plots which had received their nitrogen 1? 
the form of sulphate of ammonia showed much better crops, alike as to quantity : 
and quality, than were obtained from plots which got their nitrogen in the for? 
of nitrate of soda. Mineral superphosphate, supplemented in the case of the 
potato and root crops with fermented bones, proved the most satisfactory Oe 
of De The Dalmeny experiment also emphasised the importance © 
potash for every crop, particularly the leguminous, potatoes, and root crops 
With a moderate dressing of farmyard manure, supplemented with 4 cwt 
ground lime applied at the working of the land, and followed by 4 cwt. of supe, 
phosphate, 1 ecwt. of fermented bones, 2 cwt. of kainits, and 1 ewt. ° 
a WeTTT TO mir 7 1" wig it rn i wT) HO I ml iT : 
