5 



ANNUAL REPORT 



FOR THE YEAR 1911 



THE season of 1911 will long be memorable for the exceptional 

 heat and drought of the summer. The closing three months 

 of 1910 were exceptionally wet, over 12 inches of rain being 

 registered at Rothamsted, but a dry January enabled the wheat plant 

 to recover from the bad start it had made. In February and March 

 the rainfall was about normal with no severe cold, though there were 

 very few nights during the first three months of the year in which a 

 little frost was not recorded on the grass. With April the droughts 

 began, there being then a period of 20 days in which never more 

 than a sprinkling of rain fell. In May the high temperatures began, 

 and there were two spells of dry weather, though the rainfall for the 

 month was considerably above the average. June again opened with 

 a period of drought and heat, but heavy thunder rain about the time 

 of the Coronation again made the total rainfall above the average. 

 July was remarkable for a period of 25 days without any rain at all, 

 and a succession of high temperatures which made the mean maxi- 

 mum for the month as high as 76*3°. The first 19 days of August 

 were almost al^solutely dry with very high temperatures, a maximum 

 of 92'3'' being registered on the 9th, the highest air temperature that 

 has ever been recorded at Rothamsted. The mean maximum for 

 the month was almost as high as in July, namely 75'9°. Another 

 period of drought extended from the 22nd of August to the 13th of 

 September, though on several days a measurable shower of fine rain 

 w^as recorded ; the weather broke in the middle of October, and from 

 that time to the end of the year there were only 6 days without some 

 rain being recorded. 



The sunshine records were also well above the average, there 

 being an excess of 99 hours in July, 25 in August, and 66 in September 

 above the average of the 18 years, 1892 — 1910. Even these figures 

 hardly serve to express the exceptional character of the summer and 

 the severe conditions of drought which all the crops experienced 

 during comparatively long periods. 



The wheat on Broadbalk Field was sown on October 21st, and 

 though it suffered a good deal during the early part of the wdnter, it 

 tillered and grew very w^ell during April and May; it also continued 

 to flourish through the heat, and like the wheat all over England, 

 became a very handsome crop, exceptionally clean and bright and 

 standing up everywhere. A new variety was grown for the first 

 time — "Little Joss" — one of the varieties raised by Professor Biffen 

 of Cambridge, distinguished by its resistance to rust, and whether 



