1<S4 liijhieair of Sad Wriij/if, etc. mi llt< I'dIiUo Crop 



Tlic ])l()t was so arranged tliat these seven rows, witli their two border 

 rows on either side, eleven in all, ran from east to west. Each of the seven 

 rows were subdivided by stakes at intervals of 100 feet making four such 

 groups of 100 feet on end. 



The smaller lots were all planted in the lowest grou]) of rows and 

 were so ])lauted that F, A and K together contained 100 tubers and made 

 one complete row. whilst IT, J and 1 cliil the same in a ncighhouring 

 row. 



(Jood intentions notwitlistanding, the plot proved to he anything but 

 e({uable in character. As the drought proceeded it became increasingly 

 clear that the lowest lying, i.e. eastern end, was favoured by more 

 residual moisture in its rather more friable soil, and probably by a 

 greater precipitation of dew, the influence of which on the colour and 

 size of the plants was exceedingly clear. On the other hand, there was 

 no apparent difference in tlie soil condition from north to south. It is 

 true that the outermost row of Golden Wonder against the crop of Barley 

 was even more impoverished than its neighbour or either of the guard 

 rows on the .southern side of the plot, but this was undoubtedly due to 

 the too close proximity of a vigorous cereal cro]). E'H passaiil it should 

 be noted that two guard rows are insufficient as a jirotectiou to an experi- 

 mental plot against a foreign_cro]), but tpiite sufficient as against another 

 potato crop. 



Besides the exhausting effect of the drought, there was a frost on 

 .luue I'Jth which nipped the leaves of several plants in all parts of the 

 plot, whilst towards harvesting time surface caterpillars in search of 

 moisture wrought considerable havoc on the tubers. No single set failed 

 to produce a ])lant of some size. 



From April 19th, the day the tubers were sown, until they were 

 harvested in October, no rain whatever (barring a slight shower in 

 October) fell on the experimental ground, although heavy rain had fallen 

 elsewhere in the parish during August. The potatoes were raised by hand 

 on October 19th, exactly six months after planting, weighed at once and 

 stored in separate bags. The analysis of the crop was made in January 

 of this year. 



In Fig. I the plots are shown diu.grammatically. In the iourtli row, 

 lots H and 1 in reality formed ])arts of the sanu' row as .1. and lots K 

 and F parts of the same row as A. They are only placed in the diagram 

 alongside each other for the sake of clearness. In each plot the return of 

 cro]) per .set, i.e. the hundredth jiart of the total crop, is shown blocked 

 in black, the actual figures are given in Schedule I at the cud of the 



