Agriotjlturax Division. 313 



No manure or fertilizers of any kind were used during the four 

 years of the experiment. If it is allowed that the wheat occupied all 

 the ground, the yield would be just half as much per acre as is stated 

 above. Even then the yield was large considering the quality of the 

 land. Each year as the experiments went on the land became more 

 friab'C and in better condition physically than it was at the beginning. 

 The wheat was removed from the field as soon as it was cut, and the 

 ground plowed the same or the following day. This gave the plots 

 which had produced the wheat a short summer fallow from the middle 

 of July until fall the same year; a summer fallow from the last of 

 May to the first of September the following year. This, as it will be 

 seen, was really " maneuvering " the land, thus causing it to increase 

 in production by culture. 



In 1888 a system of experiments similar to those recorded above, 

 with additional plots treated with fertilizers and farm manures were 

 begun. 



These plots were located in the same field, but not on the same 

 ground used in the preceding experiments, upon ground where for 

 some seven or eight years experiments had been going on in the culti- 

 vation of Indian corn. The plots of Indian corn were narrow srn^ 

 laid lengthwise of the field, so when the field was laid off for conducting 

 the experiments in wheat it was seen to be best to lay the plots cross- 

 ways of the corn plots, because there had been variable and different 

 treatments in the cultivation of the corn. Some plots had received 

 nothing, others liberal applications of fertilizers. By laying out the 

 plots at right angles to the old ones it at least made them all alike, 

 though one portion of the plot might be quite different in fertility 

 from another portion. The plots contained one-tenth of an acre each, 

 and were separated by strips of gra^^s 3^ feet wide. Later the grass 

 was plowed up and the unoccupied strips were kept clean throughout 

 the summer by frequent cultivations. 



The primary object of the experiment was to show the value of 

 superior culture on rather poor clay land, such as is frequently found 

 in the wheat districts of New York, and to determine if possible how 

 much of the plant food of the land can be secured profitably without 

 adding any fertilizers. The fitting of the land for most crops is done 

 so badly that it was thought best to not only emphasize the value of 

 culture, but to discover if in some part at least, culture might be sub- 

 stituted for expensive commercial fertilizers. 



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