58 



Uiitortunately much of our barley heated in the stack, so that the 

 projected experimental scheme could not be carried out. 



Wheat suffered much from the cold spring, the May and June 

 droug-ht, the lack of sunshine in July and the wet harvest; it 

 yielded miserably on our farm though the g-eneral average through- 

 out the country was not low. 



W^hen we turn from these early sown grain crops to the late 

 sown, late growing, big leaved crops which are not required to 

 produce seed, the picture is much brighter. 



SwTdes and potatoes both ga\e record crops ; mangolds also 

 gave good yields ; on the completel}' manured plots the yields in 

 tons per acre were : — 



We can summarise the effects of the season by saying that 

 vegetative growth was poor during the first part, but remarkably 

 good during the second part, and we are disposed to connect this 

 good growth with the hot dry fallowing of the previous autumn. 

 Seed production, on the other hand, was very adversely affected, 

 indeed few seasons of recent years have brought out so clearly the 

 contrast between the two processes. 



The effect of manures was interesting. Nitrogenous fertilisers 

 acted on all crops. The increase produced by 1 cwt. sulphate of 

 ammonia in the field experiments was remarkably close to that 

 normally expected : — 



INCREASES PROr3UCED BY 1 CWT. SULPHATE OF AMMONIA IN 

 THE FIELD EXPERIMENTS OF 1922. 



Barley 

 Wheat 

 Potatoes . 

 Swedes ... 



* Taking the mean of all centre;> tlie value is 5% bushels, 

 t For early and late dressings respectively. 



Phosphates were curiously ineffective in 1922, even on the 

 sv/ede and barley crops where one would have expected them to 

 act well. During the early part of the season the usual effects of 

 stimulation of early growth were produced. Barley and swedes 

 receiving phosphates both started earlier into growth, and the 

 swedes were sooner ready for hoeing than where phosphate was 

 withheld. 



Potassic fertilisers, on the other hand, proved very effective. 

 Even barley responded (which does not usually happen at 

 Rothamsted), and the response was as marked as that of nitrogen 

 (which is c\en more unusual). The effect on potatoes was very 



