ANNUAL REPORT 



FOR THE YEAR 1912 



THE season of 1912 was characterised by its cold, wet, sunless 

 summer, which stood out in sharp contrast with the hot, dry 

 summer of 1911. Throughout it was unfavourable to crop 

 growth, and the yields on the permanent plots, where but little 

 opportunity arises for cleaning operations, were low in comparison 

 with those on adjacent fields under ordinary cultivation. The winter 

 ploughing was got through satisfactorily in spite of the unsuitable 

 weather ; the dry autumn of 1911 had left the land too hard to break 

 up, and when the rain came in December there was no less than 6 

 inches — over 34 inches above the average. January, February and 

 March also were wet. April was a remarkable month : it was 

 the driest and almost the sunniest April of which records exist 

 at Rothamsted. May also was dry and warm. But the summer 

 months were wet : in August rain fell on 27 days, amounting during 

 the month to 6"5 inches — nearly 4 inches above the average. Only 

 once before have we had so wet an August, and that was in 1879. 

 The sunless character of the summer may be gauged by the fact 

 that the total number of hours of sunshine for the 3 months July, 

 August and September was only 351, while the average for the pre- 

 vious 19 years was 585. Not till October did drier, warmer weather 

 set in. 



The variety of wheat grown this year was Little Joss. It did 

 not. stand the winter very well on our poor land. Very fair crops 

 were obtained on the Rotation Plots in Little Hoos field. Here 

 mangolds had been grown in 1911 and the land was left in clean 

 condition. The plots which have received no manure since 1904 

 gave over 20 bushels per acre, while those that received dung this 

 year gave over 34; the weight in many cases exceeded 61 lb. per 

 bushel. On Harpenden Field, which is in ordinary cultivation, a 

 good yield was also obtained after a summer fallow. But the crop 

 on Broadbalk field, where wheat has been grown continuously since 

 1843, was practically a failure. Four of the plots gave less than 

 3 bushels per acre, most of them gave less than 8; while even on the 

 dunged plot the yield was below 17 bushels per acre, and the weight 

 per bushel did not usually much exceed 5S lb. The seed was sown early 

 in October, and the young plant came up well and looked distinctly 

 promising. Before long, however, the Black Bent grass {Alopecunis 

 agrestis), one of the most pernicious and troublesome weeds on this 

 field, began to appear, and made such good growth during the wet 

 mild winter that the wheat was soon hidden. By the time the ground 

 was dry enough to allow of hoeing it was covered with a uniform 

 green carpet, in which the rows of wheat could only with difficulty 

 be distinguished. Hoeing was continued through April and May, 

 and in June recourse was had to hand weeding. None of these 

 measures however proved successful ; the weeds flourished and the 

 crop did not; and our efforts were discontinued when it became 

 evident that they were doing more harm than good. 



The success of the wheat on Little Hoos and Harpenden Fields 

 shows that the failure on Broadbalk is not directly attributable to 



