302 The IVohurn Field Expenments, 1912. 



Continuous Gkowing of Barley {Stackyard Field) 

 1912 (36th Season). 



During the winter, and subsequent to the first ploughing in 

 October, a quantity of spurry showed itself on the plots 2, 5, 

 and 8, but not on the limed plot 5aa. As, however, on the 

 previously limed plots 2aa, 2b, 5b, 8aa, and 8bb the influence 

 of lime appeared to be exhausted, further applications of lime, 

 in the same respective quantities as before, were given to these 

 plots on March 26, 1912. The land was ploughed a second 

 time April 5-8, and farmyard manure (giving 100 lb. of 

 ammonia per acre) spread and ploughed in on plot lib. 

 *■' Goldthorpe " barley, at the rate of 9 pecks per acre, was 

 drilled on April 9, mineral manures being applied on the same 

 day to plots 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10a, and 11a, and rape dust (25 lb. 

 ammonia per acre) to plot 10b. The barley came up well, and 

 April continued dry and warm. On May 2 the first halves of 

 the heavier nitrogenous top-di*essingb were put on plots 3a, 8a, 

 8aa, 9a, and the second halves on May 29. The other plots to 

 receive nitrogenous top-dressings (plots 2a, 2aa, 2b, 2bb, 3b, 

 5a, 5aa, 5b, 6, 10a and 11a) had these given in a single applica- 

 tion on May 29. The barley w^as slow in growth, and so con- 

 tinued throughout the month, the straw being very short. The 

 farmyard manure plot looked much the best (in contradistinc- 

 tion to the wheat), and so continued till harvest. The nitrate 

 of soda plots, as in the case of the wheat, were very ragged, and 

 it was remarkable that now, for the first time, spurry began to 

 show here. The re-limed plots 8aa and 8bb were quite good, 

 and so had entirely recovered. A gi'eat deal of "smut" 

 appeared in July. As already stated, the barley was allowed 

 to stand through the wet weather of August, and it was not 

 cut and harvested until September 10, the corn being threshed 

 out direct on September 14. The harvest results are given in 

 Table II. (page 301). 



The average of the unmanured plots was 9*6 bushels per acre, 

 a considerable advance on the very poor produce of 1911 (3'5 

 bushels). Mineral manures (plot 4), in spite of the prevalence 

 of the weed Equisetuni arvense, gave the unusually high return 

 of 20"9 bushels, and the highest produce of all was 32*8 bushels 

 from plot 8aa (sulphate of ammonia with minerals, after lime). 

 The superiority of sulphate of ammonia generally, as a top- 

 dressing, to nitrate of soda, which was so apparent this year 

 with the wheat, was also shown with barley, though not to 

 nearly the same extent. The heavier application of nitrate of 

 soda (plot 3a) was not as good as the lighter (plot 3b), and the 

 crops treated with this manure alone show distinct signs of 

 failing both in the wheat and in the barley. The additions of 

 minerals gave (plot 6) 10 bushels more. The influence of lime 



