44 EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



average of the past year, it will be seen, is materially 1)elow 

 the long-time average, a fact undoubtedly due to the deficiency 

 of summer rainfall, previously referred to. 



IX. In the experiments comparing winter application of 

 manure wdth spring application of an equal quantity, put into 

 large heaps in the field in the winter and spread in the spring, 

 the crop this year has been hay, mixed timothy, red top and 

 clovers. The two systems of applying manure are under com- 

 parison on five pairs of plots, and the experiment has been in 

 progress since 1899. The average crops of the past season 

 were at the following rates per acre : — 



Pounds. 



"Winter application of manure : — 



Hay, 7,045.0 



Rowen, 460.6 



Spring application of manure : — 



Hay, 6,482.0 



Rowen, 659.2 



It will be noted that the winter application has given a 

 larger crop of hay, but that the manure applied in the spring 

 has p'iven a heavier vield of rowen. If we combine the hav and 

 rowen crops, the average yields have been at the following 

 rates per acre : — 



Pounds. 



Winter application of mannre, ..... 7,505.6 

 Spring- application of manure, 7,141.2 



The field in which these experiments are located slopes con- 

 siderably in a direction running lengthwise with the plots. 

 The superiority of the results obtained where the manure is 

 applied in winter becomes more strikingly evident when it 

 is remembered that by following this system the labor cost is 

 materially less than under the other, since when the manure is 

 applied in the spring it must be handled twice. 



X. The leading feature of the poultry experiments during 

 the past year has been the continuation of the experiments 

 comparing the dry with the moist-mash system of feeding. We 

 have carried through six experiments, three during the winter 

 and three during the summer, using in these experiments six 

 different flocks of fowls. The results have been similar to those 



