WHEAT-GROWING.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18367, 28 April 1925, Page 4

WHEAT-GROWING.

MANURIAL EXPERIMENTS. HOW TO INCREASE PRODUCTION Full details of the manurial experiments in connexion with wheat-growing carried on by the Fields Division of tho Department of Agriculture on different farms in the Ladbrooks-Spring-ston-Irwcll-Prebbleton region arc given in the latest issue of the "Journal of the Department of Agriculture." Some idea of the value of the results obtained is given by the fact that the.Director of. the Fields Division (Mr A. H. Cockayne) has inserted a notice in the "Journal" drawing the attention of wheat-growers to the economic value of the use of phosphatie fertiliser. He states that assuming 200,000 acres are sown, 10,000 tons of phosphatie fertiliser, costing £75,000, will return an additional million bushels, equal to £300,000.

There were seven different experiments, and the variety of wheat sown in the majority of cases was College Hunters. The results demonstrate that in all cases, except one, a very marked increase in yield was secured from the use of phosphatie fertiliser, either in tho form of superphosphates, or basic superphosphates. Where these manures were used in combination with blood a small increase in yield resulted, but from the data at present available it cannot be stated that the blood justified the additional expenditure. The average increase from the application of phosphates on six farms was from 6 to 7 bushels per acre. One of the striking features of the experiments is that wheat sown on ground in which potatoes were grown previously showed a very marked increase in yield—in some cases as high as 10 bushels to the acre. On the same class of land, following vetches, the increase was less marked, ranging from 4 to 8 bushels to the acre. It is commonly agreed amongst fanners that land out of grass, when used for wheat-growing, does not require manuring. This is not borne out in the case of an experiment on a Ladbrooks farm. A manured plot of such land gave an increased yield of about 7 bushels to the acre as compared with the yield from a plot of the sanio land that was not manured.