298 The Wohurn Field Experiments, 1912. 



be cut and threshed out forthwith, without allowing them to 

 remain in the stack. Wheat, which was ready earliest, began 

 to sprout in the sheaves, and would have been entirely spoilt 

 if it had been put into the stack. It was therefore considered 

 advisable to thresh out the grain at once ; barley, which was 

 not ripe early in August, was allowed to stand during the 

 heavy rain of that month, and was not cut until September, 

 when it, too, was threshed out at once, like the wheat. 



Under such circumstances, not only were the yields poor, 

 but the quality of the grain was very inferior, and, though 

 valuations of the corn from the different plots of continuous 

 corn-growing were made as usual, little importance can be 

 attached to these, for the grain, with a few exceptions, was 

 bad throughout. 



On the other hand, both root crops and grass stood the 

 adverse conditions better, and, fortunately, an a])undant hay 

 crop was gathered in in good condition, while root crops 

 were unusually satisfactory for this light land farm. 



Continuous Growing of Wheat {Stackyard Field) 

 1912 (36th Season). 



No alteration in the general plan pursued during the last 

 few years was made, except for the addition of 5 cwt. per acre 

 of lime to plot 2aa, which had been given a similar amount in 

 each of the years 1905, 1909, 1910. Accordingly, the total 

 application to this plot has been 1 ton per acre, but given in 

 four different dressings of 5 cwt. each. 



The usual cultivation operations were carried out after the 

 harvest of 1911, and on October 13 farmyard manure (giving 

 100 lb. ammonia per acre) was spread and ploughed in on 

 plot lib. 



On November 2, " Square Head's Master " wheat was drilled 

 in at the rate of 9 pecks per acre, and on the same day mineral 

 manures (superphosphate and sulphate of potash) were given to 

 plots 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10a. 



The wheat appeared by December 2, and, on the whole, 

 stood well through the winter, the farmyard manure plot look- 

 ing, as usual, much the best. 



On April 9, 1912, rape dust (giving 25 lb. ammonia per acre) 

 was applied to plot 10b, and sulphate of potash to plot 1 la. 



Nitrogenous top-dressings of sulphate of ammonia and 

 nitrate of soda were given on May 1 and May 28, the heavier 

 dressings (to plots 3a, 8a, 8aa, and 9a) in two separate applica- 

 tions on the dates named, the lighter (to plots 2a, 2aa, 2b, 2bb, 

 3b, 5a, 5b, 6, 10a and 11a) only on the earlier date. 



Throughout June the plots looked well, though already 

 it seemed as if nitrate of soda was not going to give as good 



