206 EXPEKIMENTAL STATIONS. 



able, is by no means so great as that sustained by adjacent crops 

 to which farm-yard manure had been applied. 



The crop at Pumpherston was turnips (Fosterton hybrid). It 

 was sown on June 1st, under the most favourable circvimstances as 

 to weather. The manures, which had been prepared with the 

 utmost care, and which were all analysed and found correct, were 

 applied to the various plots with perfect accuracy. Advantage 

 was taken of the excellent method employed at Eothamsted of pro- 

 tecting the manures from the action of wind by the use of large 

 canvas screens, which were carried alongside the sower all down 

 the drills. The only inequality noticeable from this method of 

 procedure was that the outermost drills of some plots received 

 more than their due share of manure, and the effect of this was 

 apparent in the increased crop on these drills, especially on those 

 plots to which very light manures had been applied. So dis- 

 turbing is the effect of wind, that even with a light breeze blowing 

 screens would be of no avail. To prevent any loss from this 

 cause, dry manure should be moistened previous to sowing. 



A long drought, of about six weeks' duration, during which 

 little more than half-an-inch of rain fell, greatly retarded the 

 braird. Thinning took place on the 1st of July ; but Plot 11, 

 which had received no phosphates, and Plot 12, which had received 

 bone-ash alone, were not fit for singling till 12th July, while 

 Plot 22, which had received sulphate of potash alone, was the 

 most backward of all, and was not fit for thinning till 24th July. 



It is probably an error to suppose that the failure of the crop 

 in Plot 22 was due to the sole action of the potash manure. The 

 manure seems to have retarded the period of thinning, but the 

 period of thinning itself must be considered in the case of this 

 and other late plots. The thinning period is a critical one with 

 turnips when sown in drills and not upon the flat, especially in 

 very dry weather. By a stroke of the hoe they are suddenly 

 bereft of many lateral rootlets, and denuded to some extent of 

 soil, and are thus liable to be scorched. At a late period of the 

 season, when the weather is very hot, the growth is thus retarded 

 to an extent much greater than is capable of being explained by 

 the action of manure alone. 



On the Harelaw station the course of events was somewhat 

 different. Sowing began upon the 22d of May, all conditions 

 being very favourable, and the phosphate experiments, Plots 1 

 to 12, were put down; but, owing to a few hours' delay in for- 

 warding manure, the sowing could not be finished that day. 

 Next day was very wet, and a tack of wet weather set in, which 

 interrupted the sowing for a fortnight. On 3d June the remain- 

 ing crops were sown, while the first twelve plots were already 

 befjinninof to braird. There also the rainless June retarded the 

 brairding of the plots latest sown, though not so much as at 



