144 



HATCH EXPERIMENT STATION 



[Jan. 



even plots. The plan is to apply to each plot one year 

 barnyard manure, the next year wood ashes, and the third 

 year fine-giound bone and muriate of potash. As we have 

 three plots, the system of manuring has been so arranged 

 that every year we have a plot illustrating the results of each 

 of the applications under trial. The rates at which the sev- 

 eral manures are employed are as follows : barnyard manure, 

 8 tons ; wood ashes, 1 ton ; ground bone, ()00 pounds, and 

 nmriate of potash, 200 pounds, per acre. The manure is 

 always applied in the fall, ashes and the bone and potash in 

 early spring. A portion of the land was broken up as 

 described in the annual report for last year, on account of 

 having become somewhat infested with weeds, and reseeded. 

 That portion which was plowed after the removal of the first 

 crop in the summer of 1902, repeatedly harrowed, and then 

 seeded on August 15, has this year })roduced a very heavy 

 crop. This, no doubt, may be in part attributed to the very 

 thorough preparation which the land received before seeding, 

 although the liberal manuring which it has received for so 

 many years was no doubt also a most important factor. The 

 past season, although it promised at the start, on account of 

 the excessively dry weather from the middle of April to 

 about the 10th of June, to be a very poor one for the hay 

 crop, eventually proved decidedly favorable, as the frequent 

 rains during the last three weeks in June produced a heavy 

 growth. Conditions for the rowen crop were also excep- 

 tionally favorable. The yields of hay and of rowen and the 

 totals for each system of manuring were at the following 

 rates per acre : — 



The average total yield of the entire area for this year is 

 8,104 pounds. The average for the entire period (1893 to 

 the beginning of the present year) was 15, 413 pounds. The 



