56 EXPERIMENT STATION. [Jan. 



It will be noticed that in every instance the spring appli- 

 cation of manure has given a larger yield both of stover and 

 of hard corn than the winter application, except on plot 4. 

 This excej^tion, in onr judgment, is due to the fact that dur- 

 ing the early part of the season it was comparatively rainy, 

 and a part of the area on the south half of plot 4 was over 

 wet, so that the seed germinated imperfectly. The results 

 of this year, then, although naturally not showing jDrecise 

 numerical agreement, are in entire accord Avith those ob- 

 tained in 1905. During the entire period that the experi- 

 ment has continued the results as a rule have been similar. 



It has been noticed that the degree of superiority of the 

 crops on the sub-plots where the manure was spread in the 

 spring has varied with the character of the preceding winter. 

 There is evidently some loss in manurial value through the 

 exposure of the manure throughout the winter, and this loss 

 is probably for the most part due to wash over the frozen 

 ground during the winter or early spring. It has been found 

 that in a season following a cold winter, where snow has 

 covered and protected the manure during practically all the 

 time, and where there has been a minimum of water flowing 

 over the surface, the winter-applied manure has given results 

 closely approaching those upon the manure applied in the 

 spring. It is manifestly impossible to foresee the character 

 of the approaching winter months, and so there must always 

 be a degree of uncertainty as to results. Taken as a whole, 

 however, the differences obtained in our experiments in favor 

 of spring application have been relatively small, and during 

 a large proportion of the time insufficient in value to cover 

 the extra cost of the double handling. 



In estimating the significance of our results, it should be 

 kept in mind that the field on which these experiments have 

 been tried has a considerable slope. It is, therefore, of such 

 a character as is favorable to considerable waste through sur- 

 face wash, whenever the conditions are such as to make such 

 wash possible. It is not believed that on land which is sub- 

 stantially level, and which can be fall j)lowed, the amount 

 of waste due to the exposure incident to surface application 

 in winter will be sufficiently great to make it good farm 



