ANNUAL REPORT 



FOR THE YEAR 1910. 



/TpHE season of 1910 was a very unfavourable one for most of our 

 ■*" crops. An exceptionally wet winter was followed by low 

 temperatures and great deficiency of sunshine in the summer, with the 

 result that the corn crops yielded less than the average amount of 

 grain, and that poor in quality. October, December and February 

 were exceptionally wet months; fortunately there was in November 

 (1909) a dry period which enabled the wheat to be sown and the 

 root crops to be lifted. There was no severe cold during the winter 

 except for a short spell at the end of January, with a minimum 

 temperature of 15° on the 21st. April, May and June were good 

 growing months with a normal rainfall and temperature, the wind 

 being very continuously from the western quarter throughout the 

 whole of the early part of the year. July and August were cold and 

 sunless, but September, though still below the average in both tem- 

 perature and sunshine, was dry, and enabled the harvest to be got in 

 in good condition. The highest temperature of the year was 78*5° 

 on June 20th. 



The wheat on Broadbalk Field was sown on November 26th 

 and 27th, and though it died away a good deal during the winter, it 

 grew somewhat rapidly from March onwards, and in the early sum- 

 mer looked fairly well. After June, however, it became very blighted, 

 and showed an exceptional proportion of root-fallen stalks, though 

 the plots as a whole were not so much laid as in many seasons. The 

 yield on thrashing proved exceptionally low. The yield on the un- 

 manured plots fell to 7"5 bushels per acre ; only on three occasions 

 during the 67 years of the experiment has it been lower. The yields 

 all round were low, the highest being on the dunged plot, but that 

 only produced 28 bushels per acre. The proportion of offal corn 

 was again exceptionally high, though not to the unprecedented degree 

 that prevailed in the previous year. The yield of straw was about 

 the average, being more than double that of corn on nearly all the 

 plots. 



On the Half Acre Plot, without manure and fallowed in alter- 

 nate years, the yield was little more than 9 bushels, not much better 

 than on the unmanured continuous wheat plot, a result which might 

 have been anticipated from the wet character of the winter. 



