28 



SCIENCE AND FRUIT GROWING 



SUMMARY OF RESULTS SHOWING THE EFFECTS OF 

 TRENCHING 



not an operation on which a fruit grower should spend his 

 money. 



Special attention should be directed to the very adverse effect 

 which trenching had on bush fruits at Rothamsted, the effect 

 being persistent throughout the four years embraced by the 

 observations, and applying equally to black currants and goose- 

 berries. This is only one out of several instances in which bush 

 fruits show a marked, and, at present, unexplained difference in 



1 The value in this case, as it appeared in the original report, was 

 + 72, showing a large, and altogether exceptional., balance in favour of 

 trenching : special attention was directed to it (XIV, App., pp. 494.. 

 496). Observations in subsequent years proved, however, that it was 

 erroneous. There were in this case two plots of untrenched ground ; 

 these had not up to that time yielded very concordant results, but there 

 was not sufficient evidence to justify one of them being discarded : the 

 records of subsequent years, however, clearly showed that one of them 

 was being affected by the neighbourhood of a shelter hedge, and when 

 the results in the other, and unaffected, plot were alone considered, the 

 value became reduced from + 72 to + 39. The value, when the records 

 for four subsequent years were included, was + 9- 



2 Large fruits only. 3 Small fruits only. 



4 Large and small fruits together. 



5 Retrenched ground compared with ground trenched 12 years previously. 



