10 



In the ordinary course of things, the nitrates thus formed 

 would have been to a large extent washed down through the 

 soil into the drains during the winter and spring rains ; but 

 over a very large area of the hop-growing country the dry 

 weather of several years had reduced both soils and subsoils 

 to a very dry condition, and the rain that fell in the winter 

 of 1898-99, and in the early spring months of the latter year, 

 was not sufficient at any time at Hadlow, at all events to 

 cause the drains to run. Ponds and ditches were dry during 

 the greater part of 1899 that had not been dry for years 

 before. Not only, therefore, must there have been an excep- 

 tionally large production of soil nitrates, but an unusually 

 large proportion of the nitrates produced must have remained 

 in the surface soil and in the upper subsoil, within reach of 

 the crop of 1899, so that every hop garden, apart from any 

 application of manure in 1899, must have been in the position 

 of having received, by natural agency, an extensive dressing 

 of nitrate. When these conditions were followed by good 

 growing weather and by a most satisfactory scarcity of insect 

 pests, it is after all not remarkable that even nitrogen starved 

 land, like our Plot A, should produce a fine crop of hops, 

 or that our Plot X, with its residues of unutilised dung to 

 supply additional material for nitrification, should have given 

 so excellent an account of itself. 



An examination of our results for the year, however, will 

 show that, even under the highly advantageous natural 

 conditions that prevailed, nitrate of soda proved a valuable 

 addition to the natural resources of the soil, the quantity of 

 hops produced on the nitrated plots being from 2 to 4^ cwt. 

 per acre in excess of the crop produced without artificially 

 applied nitrogen, while the good effect in quality, as will be 

 seen later, was of even greater importance. 



