INSTITUTE AND COLLEGE, PFSA, FOR 1911-12. 19 



7. Pastures. — As indicated in last year's report a 4-acre 

 plot was laid down to permanent pasture after a green 

 manure. 



8. Clearing and Levelling. — Roads have been constructed 

 in the low-lying brick-field area and a portion of the waste 

 land reclaimed. 



9. Fodder. — The economic value of guinea g^ass as a 

 fodder has been established and returns up to 350 maunds 

 per acre obtained. 



10. Imflements and Machinery. — The wheat and oat 

 crops were mostly cut by machines. The futility of a short 

 cutting bar was demonstrated by the average daily work of 

 two machines, viz. : — 



A. 4-i ft. cut . , , 5| acres per day. 



-D. O ,, . , . O „ ,, 



The general cultivation has been much improved by 

 the use of light ploughs of the Rajah and Punjab types 

 which suit local conditions. 



Spring toothed harrows have been found useful in pre- 

 paring land for crops and maintaining summer fallows. 



11. Experiments. — The following experiments are in 

 progress and will be continued — 



(1) The permanent manurial and rotation experi- 

 ments started in 1908. 



{2) The improvement of the sugar-cane crop by 

 trenching, earthing up and intertillsige. 



[3) Experiments with regard to the sprouting of 



sugar-cane sets. A promising start was made 

 last year bv steeping the sets in water at 

 100° F. 



(4) The application of crude sulphate of soda to 



paddy. An increase of 17 maunds of grain 

 per acre on a 5-acre experiment was obtained 

 last year. This preliminary result requires 

 confirmation as information regarding the 

 uniformity of the plots treated was not com- 

 plete. 



c 2 



