1905.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 33. 149 



the single cxcoption alluded to it is the halt-plot on which 

 the soil conditions were least favorable whieli gives the 

 smaller yield. The winter of 1903 and 1904 must be re- 

 ijarded as havino^ been on the whole favorable to winter 

 application. The ground, it is true, was deeply frozen be- 

 fore the coming of snow, but the winter was severely and 

 continuously cold. There was a noticeable absence of win- 

 ter rains and thaws, during which water washes in large 

 quantities over the surface. In estimating the significance 

 of the result, it must be kept in mind that it costs more to 

 put manure first into a large heap and then in spring to take 

 it from this heap and spread it, than it does to spread during 

 the winter at the time the manure is hauled from the stable. 

 The money difference in the cost of handling manure in the 

 two ways, as shown by our experience, amounts to about 

 $4.80 per acre. The difference in the value of the crops in 

 favor of spring application is scarcely sufficient to cover 

 this added cost, even on Plot 3, where such difference was 

 greatest ; and, although the unfavorable soil conditions above 

 referred to doubtless lowered the product on that special 

 plot where the manure was applied in the spring in three 

 instances, plots 1, 4 and 5, it seems highly improbable that, 

 even with equality of conditions, the gain from spring appli- 

 cation on these plots would have given a degree of superi- 

 ority sufficient to cover the added cost. 



Previous reports have tended to show spring application 

 to be advisable on this field, which has a considerable slope ; 

 and so I still believe it will in the long run prove to be. 

 The exceptional character of the winter of 1903 and 1904 is 

 a sufficient explanation of the difference in average results. 



X. — Nitrate of Soda for Rowen. 

 This experiment is an efibrt to determine whether an 

 application of nitrate of soda after the harvesting of the 

 first crop will give an increase in rowen sufficient to cover 

 the cost. The field where the experiment has been a num- 

 ber of times repeated is a mixed timothy and clover sod. 

 It is divided into eight plots of like area, these plots being 

 numbered 1 to 8 and each including about three-eighths of 



