METHODS OF APPLYING MANURE. 



43 



familiar with the New England climate will understand that there was 

 very wide variation in conditions at the time of appHcation. Plots N 

 and S on plot 1 were the first plots supplied with manure except in 1911, 

 when the order was reversed. With the exception of the year just named, 

 plots 2, 3 and 4 were suppUed in the order named. The appUcation to 

 plot 4 was therefore, with one exception, either very late in the winter 

 or in the early spring. 



Table I. — Variations in Date of Application of Manure and of Spread- 

 ing from Heaps. 



Tlie manure applied to plot 5 was of different character. It was ob- 

 tained from a local livery stable, and was horse manure usually com- 

 paratively fresh and containing a moderate amount of straw which had 

 been used for litter. In supplying manure to N and S of plot 5, the plan 

 described in outline for the other plots was followed; that is, alternate 

 loads respectively spread on N and added to a heap on S, the total to 

 N and S being the same for each. 



In 1906 the whole field received an application of hydrated lime at 

 the rate of 1 ton per acre. This was appUed on the rough furrow and 

 was worked in by the use of the disk harrow. 



The experimental system of manuring described was continued annually 

 from 1900 to 1911, both inclusive, with the exception of one year, 1907, 

 when no manure was applied to any plot, and with a few minor varia- 

 tions which seem unimportant in their relation to the results obtained. 

 In preparation for the experiment, the yield of all plots in the field under 

 precisely similar manurial treatment for all was determined in 1899. 

 In this year manure from the station herd of dairy cows was applied by 

 means of the manure spreader driven transversely across all the plots in 

 moderate and in precisely equal amounts to each, as nearly as careful 

 regulation of the machine permitted. The field was planted with corn. 

 There was considerable difference in the total yield of dry matter ob- 

 tained on N and on S of plot 3, which reference to the plan (page 41) 

 shows was the plot which during the continuance of the orchard experi- 



