82 REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 



dantly evident that the information so far obtained forms 

 but a small fraction of what may be derived from further 

 study of the subject it is also necessary to state that owing 

 to untoward circumstances the quantitative value of the 

 field experiments of the first two seasons was greatly dimi- 

 nished, which makes it necessary to repeat the more import- 

 ant ones. The difficulty of obtaining an area of even soil 

 for experimental plots was well illustrated in the first year, 

 when it was found necessary to discard the whole of one 

 series on account of obvious initial differences between the 

 soils of various plots; in the second year a carefully selected 

 area taken in the middle of a large field proved its unsuit- 

 ability for anything more than comparisons between adja- 

 cent plots owing to waterlogging of portions consequent on 

 heavy rain and inadequate drainage. During the current 

 year (1914) a fresh site has been selected which is free from 

 such inequalities, but again difficulty has been experienced 

 owing to irregular rainfall in June at the time of sowing 

 and the attacks of caterpillars upon the backward plant; 

 the latter has, however, survived, and although the six weeks 

 old crop weighs Tess than two-thirds of that of the same ace 

 in previous years it is hoped that reliable comparative 

 results will be obtained. In addition to these field experi- 

 ments on the farm an area of one acre has been fenced in, 

 cultivated, and sown with sanai, on the south side of the 

 new outside laboratorv, and it is hoped that experimental 

 plots on this area laid out in triplicate divisions t.f ^th 

 acre each will help to provide controls for the field experi- 

 ments carried out on a larger scale on the farm. In mv 

 previous Annual Report it was mentioned that the green 

 manuring experiments for 1913-14 would include a trial of 

 the use of the method of fermenting the screen crop before 

 applying it to the land, and at the same time concentrating 

 the manurial action bv restricting the treated area although 

 using the whole of the fermented material. The result 

 when such concentration was carried out, the fermented 

 zanai being returned to about half the area on which it had 

 been grown, in the case of the following rabi crop of wheat 



