37 



dung ; and incidentally it has been also possible to institute a 

 comparison between the yields of the various plots and that of the 

 remaining portion of the garden, which in different seasons has been 

 manured in various ways. 



The Hadlow experiments were begun in 1894, on a new 

 plantation of Fuggles hops made in old hop ground on the weald 

 clay. A series of parallel plots were permanently marked out, each 

 plot being one-sixth of an acre in area and containing four rows of 

 hills. During the first season all the plots were limed and dunged. 

 On six of the plots no dung has since been applied, but phosphates 

 have been abundantly furnished every year, sometimes in the form 

 of superphosphate and sometimes in the form of basic slag ; and 

 potash has also been annually given, sometimes as kainit, sometimes 

 as muriate of potash, and more recently as sulphate of potash. 



One plot has, year after year, received the " mineral " manures 

 only, without any application whatever of nitrogenous manure, while 

 on five other plots the phosphates and potash salts have been supple- 

 mented by nitrate of soda in quantities varying from 2 cwt. per acre 

 up to 10 cwt. per acre. The larger quantities of nitrate of soda have 

 been applied in successive dressings of 2 cwt. per acre each. 



Adjoining these six plots is another plot which year by year 

 is dressed with London dung only, without any concentrated 

 manures. 



In the first year of cropping 1895 no dressings of nitrate of 

 soda were applied until May, and the latest dressings went on as late 

 as August. The summer was a dry one, and 'most of the nitrate failed 

 to produce any effect, there being a crop of from n to 13 cwt. of hops 

 per acre without any consistent differences between the plots. 



In the next year 1896 the application of nitrate was begun 

 earlier namely, in February ; the dressings on the more heavily 

 manured plots were finished in June. The results were better, but 

 nitrate in excess of 2 cwt. per acre seemed to be of little additional use, 

 although 2 cwt. per acre in conjunction, of course, with phosphates 

 and potash salts gave a very satisfactory increase. 



