214 CHEMICAL DEPARTMENT. 



and blanky. The drought which occurred in July of that year 

 told pretty severely on the crop in many places, and very much 

 retarded the crop on the unmanured soil of the Pumpherston 

 station. The consequence was, that the roots of the crop did 

 not get a sufficient hold of the soil to enable them to make good 

 use of the residual manures contained in it, and the crop was, 

 therefore, not a favourable one for enabling us to form a fair 

 estimate of unexhausted fertility. 



The season of 1887 was remarkable for its dryness, and on that 

 account produced a shorter growth of straw than has occurred for 

 many years. As might be expected, the drought was very keenly 

 felt on the unmanured land of the Pumpherston station ; and once 

 again we are prevented from duly estimating the relative amounts 

 of unexhausted fertility derived from the various manures applied 

 in former years. Nevertheless, we ar6 in a better position to do 

 so than we were during the former year, for barley is a strongly 

 rooting crop, and the rainfall in April was favourable to the 

 germinating of the seed. But for that latter fact the crop would 

 have been a failure. The quality of the barley grown in 1887 

 has seldom been surpassed, and the quantity of grain per acre 

 was not much, if at all, below average. It was only the straw 

 that was very deficient. The record of the rainfall during the 

 growing season at Pumpherston supplies some useful informa- 

 tion on this point. It was as follows : — 



Inches, . 1-21 1-54 ^59 2-86 "94 



The total rainfall from the time of sowing till the harvest was 

 thus 7 '14 inches. This may be considered a normal rainfall for 

 that period of the year, but its distribution was quite abnormal. 



The crop was sown on 9th April in fine dry weather, and for 

 a fortnight thereafter no rain fell. Fortunately, however, there 

 was a copious rainfall on the last week of the month, which en- 

 abled the seed to germinate. A fortnight of drought succeeded, 

 whereby a great amount of moisture evaporated from the bare 

 ground, and the growth of the braird was somewhat retarded. The 

 rainfall during the third and fourth weeks of May and the first 

 week of June may be said to have saved the crop, but a fortnight 

 of drought which succeeded checked the growth of the straw. The 

 showers during the first part of July could not do much more 

 than refresh the growing plant, and the high temperature and 

 unusual amount of sunshine caused the ear to fill and mature, 

 and brought on an unusually early harvest. The wet weather 



