FIELD CROPS. 251 



King yielded 34 bu. per acre, and Beardless 30 bu. Spring rye yielded at the rate 

 of 35 bu. per acre. 



Owing to the excessive wet weather field peas grew largely to vines. Many of 

 the peas shelled out before they could be properly cured. Golden Vine produced 

 the heaviest yield of vines, 5,060 lbs. This variety, which it was claimed would 

 attain an average length of Z\ ft., actually reached an average length of 9.V ft. at tin- 

 station. Several varieties of corn were tested, but none matured. Flax yielded at 

 the rate of 16 bu. of seed per acre. Hungarian millet and alsike clover produced 

 the largest yield of forage per acre, each yielding over 8,000 lbs. An instance is cited 

 in which a luxuriant growth of sand vetch apparently smothered out quack grass. 

 The New Era cowpea reached a height of 16 in. before being killed by frost. 



Of soy beans tested Ito San, Medium Early Black, and Ogemaw made the best 

 showing. These blossomed and produced pods, but none of the seed ripened. 

 Dwarf Essex rape and Thousand Headed kale were very successful at the station. 

 The rape produced seed at the rate of 760 lbs. per acre. Of 20 varieties of potatoes 

 tested, Sir Walter Raleigh led in yield. Experiments were made to determine the 

 relative value of fall and spring planting, of spraying potatoes, and of hilling and 

 level culture. Whole potatoes planted in the fall from 2 to 5 in. deep produced 

 practically as good yields and more marketable potatoes than when the same varie- 

 ties were planted in the spring. Cut potatoes planted in the fall did not give such 

 good results. Many of the pieces rotted and the sprouts appeared weak. 



Spraying potatoes with Bordeaux mixture was without benefit during the season, 

 the unsprayed potatoes giving slightly better yields. Level cultivation resulted in 

 larger yields than hilling. Sugar beets grown at the station gave an average sugar 

 percentage of 16.4 and 86.4 purity. Some figures are given showing the shrinkage 

 in beets shipped from the station to a sugar-beet factory at Menominee and to the 

 agricultural college. The loss varied from nothing to 5 J per cent. 



The Woburn pot culture experiments in 1902, J. A. Voelcker (Jour. Roy. 

 Agr. Soc. England, 64 (1903), pp. 348-364, figs. 9). — Previous results in this series of 

 experiments are noted in E. S. R., 14, p. 28. 



The Hills experiments. — The action of different compounds of manganese at the rate 

 of 2 cwt. per acre on wheat and barley is reported. The insoluble compounds were 

 mixed with the upper 4 lbs. of soil in the pots before sowing the grain, and the sol- 

 uble compounds were applied in a water solution the day after sowing. The black 

 oxid of manganese (MnO,) and the carbonate of manganese caked the surface soil and 

 turned it to a dark-brown color. In the wheat experiments the chlorid and the 

 nitrate produced a good color in the plants, while the iodid distinctly retarded germi- 

 nation and growth. 



Excepting the pots receiving manganese nitrate and manganese phosphate, the 

 untreated pots in general produced as good plants as any of the others. Seeds soaked 

 for 15 minutes in a 10 per cent manganese-iodid solution were very much reduced in 

 vitality, while soaking in a 5 per cent solution did comparatively little injury, and 

 soaking in a 1 per cent solution apparently gave an increase in yield. The phos- 

 phate, chlorid, sulphate, and red oxid (Mn 3 4 ) gave each an increase in yield. The 

 nitrate increased the yield of straw but gave less grain than the untreated pot, and 

 the iodid largely reduced both grain and straw. 



In the experiments with barley the black oxid, the carbonate, and the sulphate 

 retarded the coming up of the plants. The carbonate, the sulphate, and the iodid 

 pots gave plants inferior to those grown in untreated soil. Soaking the seed in a 10 

 per cent manganese-iodid solution was less harmful than with wheat. The yields 

 show that the 2 oxids gave no increase in either grain or straw, but that all other 

 treatment had been beneficial. The iodid in this case produced no injurious effects, 

 and the same result was observed with sodium iodid in 1900. The author states that 



