828 EXPEEIMENT STATION EECOED. 



The average gain in yield for each crop was, respectively, 2, 22, 15, 23, 19, and 

 15 per cent for the three years. 



In a study to determine the best method of irrigating potatoes the following 

 yields were obtained as averages for 1912, 1913, and 1914 : Two hundred and 

 ninety-six bu. per acre by irrigating every row and keeping the soil moist and 

 the plants in a growing condition ; 270 bu. per acre by beginning irrigation after 

 the plants required water, then irrigating every row according to common farm 

 practice; 239 bu. per acre by irrigating alternate rows at such times as the 

 crop required water (at the first irrigation every other row was skipped, at the 

 second irrigation the skipped rows were irrigated and the previously irrigated 

 rows omitted, and so on throughout the season) ; 234 bu. per acre by irrigating 

 every row but permitting tlie plants to suffer between irrigations ; and 215 bu. 

 per acre by irrigating every other row throughout the season. The rank in 

 marketable tubers was 1, 2, 4, 3, and 5. 



Data here presented that were collected by the U. S. Reclamation Service 

 show that with barley, corn, oats, potatoes, rye, stock beets, sugar beets, and 

 wheat, larger yields were obtained when the crops were grown on alfalfa 

 stubble than when grown on land that had not been in alfalfa. In some cases 

 the increase was over 100 per cent. 



Sowing alfalfa in the spring witli and without a nurse crop and in the grain 

 stubble are noted as three successful methods that were tried. With the excep- 

 tion of the first crop it was found best to irrigate alfalfa after the hay was cut. 

 The time of cutting alfalfa made no material difference as to the total yield 

 obtained during the year, provided the irrigation was normal. Tests showed 

 that three cuttings produced as much hay as four cuttings, provided the last 

 cutting was made at the same time in both cases. 



It was more profitable to plow under second or third alfalfa stubble than to 

 plow under the whole crop in the production of sugar beets. In all instances 

 of either spring or fall plowing of alfalfa stubble in various ways for sugar 

 beets, the yield was not affected as long as the work was done well and the 

 alfalfa crowns destroyed so as to prevent volunteer growth. Sugar beets 

 planted in rows 18 and 20 in. apart were more successfully irrigated and in 

 general produced more than rows spaced 24 and 28 in. apart. 



County experiment farms in Ohio. — Annual reports for 1914, C. E. Thoene 

 (Ohio Sta. Bui. 286 {1915), pp. 225-2U, 2^6-291, figs. 8).— This bulletin com- 

 prises reports for 1914 of the work of the experiment farms located in Miami, 

 Paulding, Hamilton, Clermont, and Washington counties in continuation of that 

 •previously noted (E. S. R., 31, pp. 226, 430), with the exception of the Wash- 

 ington County experiment farm, the work of which is here reported for the 

 first time. A brief outline of the work of these farms by C. W. Montgomery is 

 included. The reports for the several farms give results of fertilizer and barn- 

 yard manure experiments with rotation crops including corn, oats, wheat, soy 

 beans, clover, tobacco, and sugar beets, and of variety tests with corn, oats. 

 wheat, and soy beans. 



A general summary of the fertilizer work states that in every case, excepting 

 at Paulding, acid phosphate has produced a marked increase of crop. " When 

 the acid phosphate has been reinforced with muriate of potash there has been 

 a further increase of crop in all the tests, excepting again that at Paulding, but 

 the additional increase has not always been sufficient to cover the added cost of 

 the fertilizer. At Wooster the increase in corn has aliunduntly justified the use 

 of the potassium, while that of wheat has not. The residual increase in the 

 clover and timothy, however, has been sufficient to justify the adding of the 

 potassium salt, with a margin to spare, even when the cost of the potassium 



