Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 March 2009
The effect of sulphate of ammonia in tending to make soil acid when it is applied as a manure has been well known ever since about 1891 when Wheeler (1) first observed the phenomenon at the Rhode Island Experiment Station. Similar results to those observed by Wheeler have been found all over the world where this manure has been applied for many years on soils containing very little calcium carbonate. One of these cases has occurred at the Woburn Experimental Station, where acidity has developed which has been fatal to continued cultivation of both wheat and barley. Seeing that the soil in the continuous barley experiments at this station has been treated with sulphate of ammonia for fifty years, with or without other mineral manures, the conditions have given an excellent opportunity to study the effect of soils made acid in this way on the growth and composition of the barley plant.