AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS IN ABERDEENSHIRE.

Waikato Times, Volume XVI, Issue 1349, 22 February 1881, Page 2

AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS IN ABERDEENSHIRE.

Prom a number of experiments made in Aberdeenshire, in which eighteen plots of land were tried with various manures, and on which experiments have now been conducted during the past five years, the following results have been obtained : — They have shown that the turnip crop was much increased by phos* phate of lime, but not much by nitrogen ; while the oat crop was much increased by nitrogen, but not so much by phosphate of lime as the turnip crop, on the other hand, does not seem to be much influenced by either nitrogen or phosphate ; but its controlling ingredient seems to be potash, which has been sown all over. As to the different forms of phos« phates, the experiments have demonstrated conclusively that the insoluable mineral phosphates and' epprolites can feed the plant without any dis- . solving by acid ; that it is inferior bj its slowness to the dissolved phosphate, but not nearly so much as has been supposed ; and that the whole matter hinges on the finenesa of the division. They also' Bho«r' that, without dissolving, excellent divi« sion could be got by steamed bone flour, " and that by the use of this quick ana^ continuous phosphate along with the cheap, slow, and continuous coprolite, the ■ farmer might lessen his manure bill one* third. These are the leading lessons of the five years' experiments ; but, incidentally, a very curious fact relating to the percentage of water in the turnip' has also been brought out. It appears that 20 tons of turnips with a percentage of 93 per cent, of water are only, . equal, as food, .to 11 J "tons ( containing only 88 per cent, of water, I and the experiments and subsequent analysis show that this increase of water i* brought about by the use of nitrogenous manures. It will that be better to apply the most suitable and economical manure (i.e., phosphates) tj the turnip's', and ex* elude the nitrogen, and retain tbat constituent for thef olio wing grain crop, where it was of m»e.' * It was chaimed by fhos. 5 Jameson, the chemist to the association, that inqairy in all part* of the kingdom had eluoidated facts that wert of benefit and use to- far* mers, showing as they d^d that with;regard to the turnip crop a saving of about one-third the coifc of the u^ual manures could be.made^whUe the results would be equal, if nob superior tq the okV system. The experiments were conduoted on fire different classes of soil. "•'

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