30 SCIENTIFIC REPORTS OF THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 



becomes largely a question of the solubility of this substance 

 in the soil solution. These deductions are of considerable 

 interest, and experiments are being conducted to test their 

 validity. 



VII. Crops. 



(a) Paddy. A series of experiments were instituted 

 with the object of determining whether or not the investi- 

 gations on paddy on which I had been engaged at Coim- 

 batore could be carried on in a satisfactory manner at Pusa. 

 As a result there appears to be no insuperable difficulty to 

 be faced, and consequently work on this crop will constitute 

 in the future one of the major subjects of investigation of 

 this Section. 



For this preliminary work the question selected for 

 investigation was whether or not the use of ammoniacal 

 manures could be advantageously combined with green- 

 manuring. For this purpose two series of fifty pots each 

 were laid down, filled with soil to which graduated incre- 

 ments of ammonium sulphate were added, and to half of 

 the pots green leaf manure was added at the rate of 

 10,000 lb. per acre. Into each series a selected pure strain 

 of paddy seedlings was transplanted, and I am greatly 

 indebted to the kindness of Mr. F. R. Parnell, Government 

 Economic Botanist, Madras, for supplying me with the 

 seed. At the time of writing the crops have not reached 

 maturity and no quantitative results are available, but the 

 growth in the pots is well differentiated and will, in all 

 probability, give rise to definite conclusions. One point, 

 however, is very clear even at this stage. The reaction of 

 the two strains of paddy to green-manuring is very dis- 

 similar and leads to the conclusion that the uncertain 

 reaction of green manures is not entirely associated with 

 soil conditions, but that the strain of paddy employed is a 

 factor to be considered. This is a question which will 

 require close investigation. 



(b) Tobacco. The First Assistant, Mr. J. N. Mukerji, 

 has continued his experiments on the effect of different 



