96 SCIENCE AND FRUIT GROWING 



also those for the last four years, for these give abnormally high 

 values for the dunged, as compared with the undunged, plants, 

 owing to the plots having been maintained for some years after 

 the majority of the bushes had become exhausted, and many 

 of those in the undunged plots had died ; but even when these 

 last few years are omitted, the values are sufficiently striking, 

 showing an increase of 544 per cent, with a dressing of 30 tons 

 to the acre, and of 346 per cent, with one of 12 tons. These 

 values are fully borne out by the second series, B, where the 

 results with the crops were further substantiated by the weights 

 of the bushes themselves, one row of them having been lifted 

 and weighed at the end of five years. 



A rtificials. Dung. 



No =12 tons = 30 tons 12 30 



manure. dung. dung. tons. tons. 



A. 1900-7 . . 100 70 113 446 644 



B. 1913-17 . . 100 87 140 315 726 

 B. Weight of bushes 100 92 124 210 696 



Whilst dung has had such a great effect on the results, artificials 

 have had comparatively little ; indeed, with the smaller dressing 

 of the latter, the effect seems to have been actually deleterious. 



There were two other series of experiments with gooseberries : 

 in one of these the effect of omitting one or other of the con- 

 stituents of the artificial manure was examined. The amount 

 applied was the equivalent of 30 tons of dung. The general effect 

 on the crop was decidedly greater than in the two series mentioned 

 above, the values being raised by it to about 200, as compared 

 with the unmanured plot as 100; but the omission of either 

 nitrate or potash had no effect on the results, and the omission 

 of phosphates actually improved them, as in the case of the apple 

 plots at Millbrook. Five years' averages gave 



Relative 



values of 



crops. 



No manure . ... . . . . 100 



Complete artificials ...... 203 



Artificials without nitrate . . . . .219 



potash ..... 198 



phosphate .... 297 



In the other series of experiments, also extending over five 

 years, an attempt was made to ascertain whether the addition 



