WHEAT YIELDS.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 20037, 19 September 1930, Page 11

WHEAT YIELDS.

INCREASE WITH NITRATE

OF SODA.

EFFECT OF MANURBB QN

QUALITY*

That different manures used with wheat have no important effect on the quality of the loaf is the conclusion arrived at by the Wheat Besearch Institute after exhaustive manurial trials. The exception is nitrogen applied late. This result iB in accord with expertence abroad, and members of the Committee of the Institute, at yesterday's meeting, questioned whether it ' was worth while continuing the trials as they thought that the farmer would always study yield and not loaf qual-> ity when choosing between one mani.ie and another. Against this, manuring with nitrate of soda has produced .«uip;ising increases in yield. The report on the tests, which were oariied out on Canterbury and Marlborough farms with material provided by the Agricultural Department,' confirmed the conclusion of last . years that different manures had no .marked effect on the quality of the. .grain. The trials were made with wheats from thirteen different localities. In eachcase wheats were grown side by side with four different manurings and each sample as sent to the laboratory was made up from 12 different plots.. Bev- " outv-five different lots of wheat were ■ milled and baked. ' •

Use of Nitrate of Soda. As to the effect of manures on yield,. continued the report, one of the most striking developments of wheat-grow-ir.g of recent years was the report by tlu Agricultural Department that an ' increase of five bushelß of wheat per acre could be obtained by the nse« of ". lewt of nitrate of soda. ,-■ „. a, x, The result was based on the «*pjßfci-', uirnts of three consecutive years, : anjl lnit year increases were obtained on 27 -, out rf the 32 farms on which trials-Were • conducted. The Institute*, added; the report, owes its heartiest thanks ; tothf / Department for this prpof pf a means i by which the cost of producing wheat 1 ' •/, might be lessened. < ~, ''•> s >' \'\ In the present year the Department is conducting manurialand*variety\trlal» f - on wheat in the Canterbury and. Mart-;-borough area. # ' . , '* & £;"