METHODS OF APPLYING MANURE. 49 



especially the proportion of soluble ammonia and nitrates. It is a con- 

 clusion which these facts render extremely probable that the winter- 

 spread manure on plot 5 suffered greater loss than that from cows spread 

 on the other plots. 



Further, it will be remembered that the length of time during which 

 manure on plot 1 N was exposed was greater than on plots 2 and 4, and 

 it is probably significant that S gave yields superior to N on plots 2 and 4 

 more frequently than on 1, a fact which this table brings out clearl3^ 



Varying Effect of the Systems of Manuring on the Cover Crop 

 OF Rye. 



No effort was made to determine the amount of green rye turned under 

 on the different plots, but careful observations were made on the relative 

 condition on N and S of the several plots. Our records of such obser- 

 vations show that, as would naturally be expected, the growth of the 

 cover crop of rye during the early spring on plots N was superior to that 

 on S. As is well understood, rye grows at an extremely low temperature, 

 and wherever the manure had been spread during the winter the cover 

 crop of rye derived considerable advantage from it. The dates of turn- 

 ing the cover crop under varied quite widely in successive years, being 

 determined in part by peculiarities of season and in part by the crop 

 which was to follow, but the plan adopted did not, as a rule, allow a 

 very large growth, as it was always the aim, as it should be in turning 

 under cover or green manure crops provided the bulk of green material 

 is considerable, to turn the crop under some little time previous to the 

 date of planting the crop which is to follow. 



Conclusions apparently justified at the End of the Period of 

 Annual Application. 



My conclusions, if based solely upon results obtained during the period 

 of annual application of manure, must have been about as follows : — ■ 



1. The various tabulations which have been presented indicate wide 

 variations, and do not justify sweeping conclusions as to the superiority 

 of either one or the other of the two systems under comparison. 



2. The general results, however, in my opinion, indicate quite clearly 

 that there was considerably more wastage, which varied from year to 

 year in amount, from manure applied to plots N than from that first 

 piled and later spread on plots S. 



3. I believe that the fact of such excess wastage from plots N would 

 have been brought out more distinctly by comparison of results had the 

 rate of appUcation of manure been lower, for the results afford fairly 

 conclusive evidence that even after such wastage as occurred the amounts 



