42 REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 



undertook the large number of nitrogen determinations 

 involved in these investigations. 



Cultivation Eocperiments at Pusa. 



In connection with the growth of wheat at Pusa several 

 matters connected with the cultivation of the crop have been 

 observed which have since been made the subject of 

 experiment. 



The first concerns the continuous growth of wheat with- 

 out manure. This experiment is being conducted on a plot 

 of typical wheat land, which is heavy in texture and which 

 retains water well. The past season was the fifth year of 

 the experiment and the yield was twenty-six maunds to the 

 acre, an increase on that of previous years. This is the 

 limit of the yielding power, up to the present at Pusa, of the 

 variety grown on this plot and the results show that, after 

 five years' cropping with wheat without manure, the natural 

 fertility of the land is not yet affected. Indeed, the last 

 crop was much too rank and was laid to a considerable 

 extent by wind after coming into ear. 



The next cultivation experiment is concerned with the 

 effect of hot weather cultivation as compared with late 

 ploughing after the beginning of the monsoon. This ex- 

 periment is now in the second year and last season the 

 difference in yield between the two plots was twelve and a 

 half bushels to the acre in favour of early ploughing. In 

 the first year, the difference was only six bushels, due to the 

 fact that both plots started in a high state of cultivation. 

 This result appears to indicate that the effect of hot weather 

 cultivation is cumulative and that the maximum yields are 

 not realised the first year. 



Drainage is an important factor in wheat growing in 

 the alluvium and influences both the yield and the quality. 

 On waterlogged areas, the consistency of the sample is gene- 

 rally very mixed and the yield is low. An experiment on 

 this subject at IHisa showed that waterlogging the land 

 during the month of September previous to sowing reduced 

 the crop fifty per cent., that is, to sixteen bushels to the acre. 

 This was shown to be due to a want of available nitrogen, 



