the residue of the dung applied in 1895 must have been the 

 sources drawn upon, though for two years previously these 

 had sufficed to produce but little more than half a crop. The 

 phenomenon observed on this one-sixth of an acre is no doubt 

 due to the same natural causes that produced the abnormally 

 heavy crop in 1899 over a large area in Kent and Sussex ; 

 and it is of great interest to inquire what these causes may 

 have been. 



One of our plots which, without chemical fertilisers, has 

 every year received thirty loads of London dung per acre, 

 had given in 1897 an d 1898 when the summers were very 

 dry almost as bad an account of itself as the plot altogether 

 destitute of nitrogenous manure, producing quite a paltry 

 crop compared with that produced by phosphates, potash, 

 and nitrate. In 1899, however, this dunged plot behaved in 

 an altogether exceptional manner, and did as well for quantity 

 as any of our plots, producing 24! cwt. of hops per acre, 

 though, as we shall see, the quality was poor compared with 

 that of the nitrated and phosphated hops. The same natural 

 influences, therefore, that produced the extraordinary yield 

 of over a ton per acre on the nitrogen-starved plot produced 

 still more marked results on the dunged plot. " 



I think that much light is thrown on the matter by going 

 back to 1898, and considering the weather then experienced. 

 We had in 1898 a very hot summer, followed by an unusually 

 warm autumn, affording a long and favourable time for the 

 natural nitrification of the organic nitrogen of the soil, so 

 that the land must have been unusually well supplied with 

 natural nitrates by the time that winter arrived, if, indeed, the 

 term winter can properly be applied to such mild weather as 

 was experienced during the calendar winter months of 1898-99. 



