ANNUAL REPORT 



FOR THE YEAR 1913 



THE distinguishing features of 1913 were its sunless, rainy 

 spring and its dry, sunless summer. The temperature was, 

 on the whole, somewhat above the average excepting in July, 

 when it was distinctly lower. There were many more wet days in 

 January, March and April than usual, and at the end of the latter 

 month we had had no less than 10 inches of rain instead of the nor- 

 mal 7'9. June, July, August and September were, however, very 

 dry ; October and November had the average rain fall, but Decem- 

 ber was considerably drier than usual. For the whole year the 

 rainfall was 2472 inches, this being 3*62 inches or 12*8 per cent, 

 below the average. This deficit was characteristic of much of the 

 Eastern part of England, although, as Dr. Mill has pointed out, there 

 was approximately an equal excess over much of the West. The 

 number of hours of bright sunshine was 1337, being 255 less than 

 the average. The deficit arose during the four months, January to 

 April, and the three months July to September, particularly during 

 July when we had 93 hours only instead of the average 218. 



From the farmer's standpoint the October of 1912 had been 

 favourable but November had been wet, so that work was delayed 

 and a smaller area of winter corn was sown than was intended. 

 December was fine, however, and the wheat and winter oats made 

 a good start. The land was very wet at the end of December, but 

 on the whole, the conditions were good till the middle of March, so 

 that all the spring corn went in well. Then the persistent wetness 

 and the increasing excess of rainfall began to tell, and work on the 

 potato land was brought to a standstill, and instead of getting in the 

 crop early in April, we had to wait to the third week in May. The 

 sowing of mangolds was similarly delayed and it was May 30th 

 before Barnfield was sown. This field, which has carried root crops 

 with only a three-year break since 1843, is somewhat difficult to 

 manage in spring : it tends to become suddenly hard on top while 

 underneath it is still too spongy to carry the horses. In con- 

 sequence, the season for getting in the seed is easily missed. Even 

 the dunged plots show this behaviour to some extent, though not so 

 markedly as those receiving no organic manure. The farm mangolds 

 could not be sown till June 9th and did very badly. The swedes on 

 Little Hoos field went in well and came up well, but a large pro- 

 portion of the plant died because no rain fell : more seed was sown 

 on July 16th but the crop failed. A fair crop of hay was secured : 

 it was given four clear days to make and went into the stack well, 

 showing no tendency to become heated like a good deal of hay in 

 the district that had been hurried in too quickly. 



The harvest came early and the weather was exceedingly good. 

 Winter oats and wheat yielded well, spring oats w r ere rather below, 

 but barley was above the average. 



In the experiment plots, the outstanding feature of the year was 

 the extraordinarily large crop of barley in Hoos Field. Right from 

 the outset the plants grew 7 remarkably well and they w T ent through 

 to the end without a check. The plots without potash tended to 

 become laid : those supplied with nitrogen tended to form their ears 



