REPORT OF MR. R. ROBERTSON 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



EXPERIMENTS WITH BARLEY. 



267 



Eighteen varieties of six-rowed and fifteen varieties of two-rowed barley were 

 sown in uniform plots on one-fortieth acre each, on May 16. The land was a clay 

 loam that had been in clover hay the previous year (1904), in grain in 1903 and roots 

 in 1902, for which crop barnyard manure at the rate of 20 one-horse cart loads per 

 acre was used. No manure or fertilizer of any kind has been applied since. This 

 land was ploughed in the autumn and a very light crop of aftermath turned under and 

 was worked up in the spring with spring-tooth, disc and smoothing harrows, and sown 

 with seed selected from the previous year's crop by cutting picked heads at harvest 

 time. 



The grain was sown with the seed drill at the rate of 2 bushels per acre, and at the 

 -S&."me time there was also sown 7 lbs. Mammoth Red clover, 3 lbs. Alsike Clover and 12 

 Jba. Timothy seed per acre. The grain made rather slow growth for some time, 1 ut 

 always retained a good healthy colour. Continued dry weather caused premature 

 ripening. There was no rust, but some heads of smut. The following yields were 

 obtained : — 



Six-Rov/ED Barley — Test of Varieties. 



1 

 2 

 3 



4 

 5 

 G 

 7 

 8 

 9 



10 

 11 

 12 

 13 

 14 

 15 

 16 

 17 

 18 



Name of Variety. 



Albert 



Brome 



Mensury 



Common 



Stella 



Empire 



Royal 



Summit 



Champion ... ... 



Argyle 



Trooper 



Rennie's Improved 



Oderbruch 



Yale 



Nugent . . 



Odessa 



Claude 



Mansfield 



to 



c 



o 



94 

 97 

 95 

 93 

 96 

 94 

 93 

 95 

 93 

 94 

 93 

 93 

 93 

 93 

 94 

 93 

 93 

 95 



o S 



g a 



Inches. 



38 

 37 

 38 

 3f) 

 36 

 36 

 35 

 36 

 40 

 37 

 35 

 33 

 36 

 35 

 32 

 36 

 33 

 37 



to 



.Character 



of 



Straw. 



Stiff. 



Medium 

 Stiff.... 



42 



42 



42 



41 



40 



40 



38 



40 



44 INIedium 



42 Stiff.... 



38' „ .... 



36! „ ... 



40iMedinm 



38iStiff.... 



35 „ .... 

 40 Medium 



36 Stiff 

 39 



Length 



of 

 Head. 



Inches. 



2i 

 2 

 2 

 2 



If 

 2 



!i 



2 



2h 



l| 



1^ 



2 



2 



2 



2 



\i 



-la 



to 3 



.- 2^ 



„ 3 



- 2h 



.. 2| 



.. 3 



.. 2h 



„ 2i 



„ 3 



„ 3 



.. 2h 



u 2\ 



u 3 



M 2i 



.. 2^ 



" 3 



,. 2 



.. 2^ 



Weight 



of 

 Straw. 



Lbs. 



4,000 

 4,120 

 4,040 

 3,240 

 3,880 

 3,480 

 4,000 

 3,000 

 4,020 

 2,920 

 3,2C0 

 3,640 

 3,620 

 3,080 

 2,520 

 3,280 

 2,480 

 2,680 



Yield 



per 

 Acre. 



Bush. lbs. 



49 8 



49 8 



48 16 



47 24 



45 .. 



41 32 



39 8 



38 36 



38 16 



37 24 



34 28 



34 28 



34 8 



33 16 



31 32 



31 12 



31 12 



30 40 



^ -I 



Lbs. 



52J 



48 



48 



50i 



5l' 



50| 



51 



51| 



44 



49i 



51 



50 



50 



50 



49? 



40" 



50 



5U 



