BARLEY MANURIAL TRIAL

Southland Times, Issue 23308, 18 September 1937, Page 14

BARLEY MANURIAL TRIAL

EXPERIMENTS AT GARSTON A manurial trial on malting barley was carried out at Garston by the Department of Agriculture last season on an area of river flat country composed of fairly free loam with shingly patches. The land had been cropped continuous ly since 1923. Five plots were laid down and sowed with Plumage barley at two bushels to the acre. The following manures were applied to the different plots, the quantities being given in amounts an acre:—l Superphosphate, 1 cwt; 2 superphosphate 1 cwt., 20 per cent, potash Icwt; 3 superphosphate 2 cwt.; 4 superphosphate 2 cwt., 30 per cent, potash 2 cwt. Once cwt. of potash was sown with the seed and another cwt when the crop was two inches high. 5 Superphosphate 1 cwt, sulphate of ammonia 1J cwt., applied when the barley was two inches high. Two months after the sowing there was a generally good strike. Thera were no noticeable differences between treatments pne, two and five, and treatments three and four seemed to be a little more vigorous. Nearly a month later, it was noticed that good results had been obtained from the application of sulphate of ammonia. There did not appear to be any response from the addition of the potash. After five months it was observed that the sulphate of ammonia treatments were a little later than the other treatments and there was a greenish tinge in the heads and straw. - The following were the yields in bushels an acre for each plot:—

Plot Yield 1 48.8 2 52.1 3 49.7 4 52.1 5 58.3