584 Agricultural Journal of Victoria. 



The System of Experimenting. 



All the tests were cari'ied out in co-operation with farmers who- 

 provided the land and gave the necessary assistance in putting in and 

 taking off the crops. Special efforts were made in the present tests 

 to gain regular and reliable results. Each crop was sown by a 

 Government field officer with a grain drill specially adapted for the 

 continuous regular discharge of fertilizer and seed. The crops were 

 inspected daring growth by the officer who himself applied the top 

 dressings where necessary. Each plot was harvested with the binder 

 and stocked under the supervision of the officer, and the same pre- 

 cautions were afterwards observed in weighing results. Prior to 

 the sowing of the crop, the land which had been set aside for the 

 purpose by the farmer, was inspected with a view to determining its 

 suitability. In a percentage of cases there was not that regularity in 

 the nature and treatment of the soil which is so desirable a feature 

 in tests of this character. Depressions and rises, clay or sand 

 patches introducing differences in both chemical composition and 

 mechanical character, finishing furrows and other disturbing factors 

 not considered deserving of notice by the ordinary observer, but of 

 supreme concern to the experimenter, were too frequently present^, 

 all helping to contribute in places to those irregularities in returns- 

 which at times appear to flatly contradict results obtained from 

 another portion of the field. It will be recognized, however, that 

 these are conditions which must be expected, and to an extent 

 accepted in any system of co-operative farm experimenting. They 

 may be met, and their disturbing effects largely obviated by the- 

 elimination of returns from portions of a field so affected ; by the- 

 introduction of double checks and by the consideration of the average- 

 returns of large numbers of fields in which individual irregularities 

 are made to disappear, and certain broad features generally character- 

 istic of the soils of a district brought into prominence. It must 

 be recognised, however, that under the most favorable circumstances 

 the conditions for experimenting obtaining on a farm can never- 

 equal those possible at an Experiment Station where continuous 

 takes the place of intermittent observation, and where the selection 

 of locality, the preparation of the soil, time of sowing and time of 

 harvesting can be suitably arranged, and the whole set of operations 

 adjusted to the attainment of an ideal set of conditions. But admit- 

 ting disadvantages in these particulars, a wide system of co-opera- 

 tive field tests carries advantages in other directions, and the 

 Victorian farmer, I think, has recognized the fact. 



The Area Covered in Each Experiment. 



The area required for the, field manure test on each farm amounted 

 to 1^ acres. The plan will show the size of the field and the arrange- 

 ment, width and length of the various plots. For ease in working, 

 the width of each plot was made to correspond to one sweep of a 

 small fertilizer drill. This width also adapted itself to easy harvesting- 



