80 



halves on June 18th. The wheat, though it came up quite well, 

 was, for a considerable time afterwards, almost at a standstill, 

 and was late in making a start. It looked better in January, 1924, 

 but another period of stagnation occurred in March and April, 

 and the crop moved but slowly. In June the farmyard manure 

 plot (lib) looked the best; it was also specially noticeable that 

 the nitrate of soda plots were better than the sulphate of ammonia 

 ones, but much more weedy than any of the other plots. The 

 crops being but small, stood up well and were cut on August 

 14th, carted on September 2nd and stacked, being threshed out 

 the week before Christmas, 1924. 



The produce, on account of the untoward conditions, was very 

 poor — as low as any recorded during the whole 48 years. The 

 unmanured produce was only 1.6 bushels of corn with 4 c. 1 qr. 

 17 lbs. of straw, etc., per acre; nitrate of soda was markedly 

 superior to sulphate of ammonia throughout, but the heavier 

 dressings were not better than the lighter ones. Lime still con- 

 tinued to show its influence, even in plot 2b (last limed in 1897). 



The results for both years are given on page 79. 



2. Continuous Growing of Barley (Stackyard Field). 



1923 (i7th Season). 



Farmyard manure was applied (plot lib) March 21st, 1923, 

 mineral manures and rape dust on April 4th, and barley — 

 11 Plumage Archer " — at the rate of 2| bushels per acre was 

 drilled on April 5th. The first nitrogenous top-dressings were 

 given on June 12th, the second on July 10th. On plot 2aa a 

 further application of lime — 10 cwt. per acre — was made in 

 January 1923. 



The season was very unfavourable for barley, and the crop 

 was specially short in the straw. The farmyard manure plot 

 (lib) was the only one to look even fair, and a small yield gene- 

 rally characterised the harvest which began on August 31st, the 

 barley bemg stacked on September 1st and threshed November 

 11th, 1923. 



The unmanured produce was only 3.9 bushels of corn with 

 6 cwt. 3 qrs. straw per acre, a yield below even the poor one of 

 1921. Nitrate of soda, both alone and with minerals, did much 

 better than sulphate of ammonia even when lime was given as 

 well. 



1924 (4:8th Season). 



" Plumage Archer " barley, at the rate of 3 bushels per 

 acre, was drilled on March 10th, 1924. Rape dust and farmyard 

 manure had been previously (February 11th) applied to plots 

 10b and lib. The barley was slow in coming up and was never 

 more than a thin crop and not of good healthy colour; further, 

 weeds were very abundant, especially on the nitrate of soda plots. 

 The first top-dressings of nitrogenous salts were given on May 

 16th and 16th, the second on June 25th. A very poor crop only — 

 as low as any during the whole 48 years' experiments — was 

 obtained. This was cut on August 13th, carted and stacked on 



