MANURING EXPERIMENTS.

Waikato Times, Volume LVII, Issue 8047, 2 November 1906, Page 1

MANURING EXPERIMENTS.

Mr B. 0. Aston, Chief Chemist to the Department of Agriculture, has issued the following instructions in a leallet to fanners for the earning out of iiu experiment! scheme for manuring turnips ami mangels : Seven plots of equal size to be sown with turnips or mangels of one variety, J the ground to be away from the iu- : tluence of trees and hedges, and to | be uniform in texture and composij tion. The plots to be laid off side by side, and preferably long and narrow. Paddocks which have sandy, marh, huinu*, clayey, or gravelly patches distiuct from the average soil, or on which hedge-clippings, bush, stump*, straw, etc , have been burnt off, or previous treatment of which as regards the method of cultivating, manuring, or cropping has not been of a unifoim nature, are not suitable fur the purpose of plot experiments. Should it be possible to dress a strip of the plots with farmyard manure or with lime before ploughing, the value of the tests will be trebled. The manure must be well rotted, and may be af plied at the rate of up to 10 tons per acre. Lime mu-t be well burnt, and applied at the rate of 2 tons to the acre. If ground burnt lime can be procured, it will be better to spread it on without previous slaking ; if only the ordinary agricultural lime is available, it must be slaked in heaps and then spread, a somewhat troublesome operation, and for which a calm day is indispensable. The exact size of the plots is not specified, it being left to the experimentalist's convenience. The manure for each individual plot (as numbered) will contain enough fertiliser for one acre. For school-garden experiments any convenient plot may be used, but no numerical expression of the results in terms of the actual yield per acre should be attempted unless the crop from at least one-fortieth part of an acre has been weighed. For school experiments each number will contain enough manure for one-fortieth part of an acre. Applications for fertilisers must be addressed to the' Cnief Chemist, and state whether for farm or for school experiments. The fertilisers will be sent out at the cost of the applicant by the Gear Meat Company, Wellington. Each bag will be plainly marked to correspond with the appended schemes. The potash fertilisers are given free by the Potash Syndicate when the experiments are conducted under the direction of the Chemical D vision. Careful notes of the crop's growth, giving dates, should from time to time be taken, and the whole appended to the final result. In the final report the full details of cultivation should be given, with dates of sowing etc. Turnip manures: Plot No T. 1. U cwt superphosphate per acre. T. 2. 3 cwt superphosphate per acre. T. 3. U cwt. basic slag per acre. 14 cwt. superphosphate per acre. T. 4. No manure. T. 5. § cwt. bonedust per acre. 2 cwt. superphosphate per acre. T. 6. | cwt. bonedust per acre. 2 cwt. superphosphate per acre. I cwt. potash-sulphate per acre. T, 7. 1 \ cwt. of No G mixture per acre.