10 May, 1916. 1 Results of Experiments, 1915. 



291 



Where land is cheap and has not long been cropped, these objections 

 possibly do not carry weight. Where land values are high and wheat- 

 growing has been practised for a generation, the matter is more serious. 

 Instead of a year of idleness the land could be made in winter to produce 

 some crop other than wheat, to be fed down by sheep, and subsequently 

 worked through the summer as a partial fallow for a subsequent wheat 

 crop. The practical question, however, is, would such procedure pay. 



To answer this question was the objective of a set of experiments at 

 the State Research Farm, Werribee, and while only two years' results 

 are available, the figures obtained are certainly suggestive. Three 

 years ago a set of twenty 1-acre plots were marked out at Werribee. 

 Ten were sown with forage for feeding off and ploughing in, whilst ten 

 were sown with wheat. By alternating the ten forage plots with the 

 ten wheat plots each year, comparative results will be obtained of the 

 value of wheat after each of the forages when fed off as compared with 

 wheat following the same forages ploughed m. 



General View of Green Manure Trials, State Research Farm, Wen-ibee, showing 

 method of feeding off Rye and Vetches and Cape Barley with Sheep. 



The average results for the two seasons 1914-15 are as follow: — 



Tahle T. — Returns from Wheat Plots Grown in Rotation with 

 Forages Fed Off and Forages Ploughed In. 



Note. — Plot 10 (Bare-fill low) rpccivcil a dmibli' dnso of iiiHiiiirr, 1 cwf. bi'liiu «own durlnx fullowtnit 

 operations, and 1 cwt. being sown with the wlieat croj). Plot 5 rccelvctl 1 ewt when town with wheat. 



