WHEAT MANURIAL TRIALS

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 780, 28 September 1929, Page 31

WHEAT MANURIAL TRIALS

The Value Of Nitrogen As A Crop Stimulant FOR SEVERAL YEARS PAST the officers of the Fields Division of the Department of Agriculture in Canterbury have been carrying out wheat manurial experiments. Considerable interest has been taken in these trials by farmers, and recently increased interest has centred around the use of nitrogen as an addition to the superphosphate treatment which has given successful results in experiments during the past few years.

Nitrogenous fertilisers are especially valuable in the case of crops that have received a check through cold wet soil conditions. Such fertilisers in the form of nitrate of soda, sulphate of ammonia, etc., are very quick in action. An application of, say, one cwt an acre, applied to a backward crop, often produces visible results in the course of a few days. It is noticed that the plants generally take on a dark green colour and commence to grow strongly. The yields from super plots last season show that the super increased the yield by over six bushels an acre when weights are compared with the no-manure plots. Such a result can be said to he highly profitable, as approximately one bushel additional ■will pay for the fertiliser and its application. In connection with the application of nitrogen last season, it is of interest to know that in only four experiments this fertiliser failed to give results. The increase in the other trials ranged from two to nearly 11 bushels an acre, and when the whole of the experiments are averaged, the increase due to nitrogen works out at 4.4 bushels an acre. Last season in Canterbury nearly 200 •mall observational nitrogen cereal top-

; dressing plots wore laid dow n. These plots were as far as possible kept under observation during the growing and ripening period and 50 of them were . threshed and gave an increase, due to nitrogen, of 4.8 bushels an acre. This is in close agreement with the results ! from the carefully conducted manurial : trials, and the significance of such reI suits cannot be lightly passed over. The department’s recommendaI tion to farmers growing wheat is to use superphosphate at the rate of one cwt an acre at the time of sowj ing and to make a trial dressing of ; soluble nitrogen at the rate of one to two cwt an acre in the spring, | preferably during the first fortnight in September. At the present time a large number of crops is to be seen in various part* of the province that are somewhat yellow in appearance. Farmers are r#- ! commended to dress portions of such ;crops with sulphate of ammonia or ; nitrate of soda next month. Some farmers are inclined to apply dressings of half a cwt an acre of sulphate of ammonia. This quantity is too small to give definite results, and at least one cwt an acre should be ' applied.