EXPERIMENTS CONDUCTED WITH A VIEW TO CONTROLLING DISEASE. 53 



TABLE XXIII. SUMMARY OF FOUR YEARS' EXPERIMENTS. 

 THREE TREES IN EACH OF THE THIRTEEN PLOTS. 



Number of Fruits. 



Total No. 



Per cent. Pitted. 



Total No. Per cent. Pitted. 

 Pitted. for 4 years. 



Totals 262 208 4008 289 4707 



12 

 11 



8 



25 

 12 



8 



18 

 12 

 12 

 19 



8 

 22 



167 



2 

 2 

 3 

 5 

 3 

 6 

 4 

 5 

 3 

 4 

 3 

 5.5 



SUMMARY FOR FOUR YEARS. 



The trees are now six years old, and the results have been recorded for four seasons. Seeing 

 that the same manures have been applied continuously since the trees were planted in 1909, the com- 

 parative results should afford some indication of their effects upon the fruit. But the value of this 

 experiment will only be fully realized in the future, when the trees have come into full bearing and 

 the differences in yield and Pit are more pronounced. 



The heaviest yield was in plot 2, with super phosphate only, and the lightest in one of the unmanured 

 plots, but where fertilizers were used, it ivas in plot 8, with lime alone. 



The least amount of Pit was in plots 1 and 2, the one with superphosphate and the other unmanured, 

 and the greatest amount was also in the unmanured plots. 



5. AT MOUNT BARKER ESTATE ORCHARD, WESTERN AUSTRALIA. 



This is now the third season in which the manurial experiments have been conducted at this 

 orchard. The trees were planted in the winter of 1905, so that they are nine years of age. The 

 manures were applied on 14th and 15th July, and the crop was gathered in the beginning of March, 

 the season being about three weeks earlier than the last. There was no spraying of any kind, as Codlin 

 Moth is unknown in the district. 



The rainfall in 1912 was 28-77 inches; in 1913, 35-24 inches; and in 1914, 25-16 inches. 

 The rainfall was comparatively light during the winter, and the ground was so hard in the spring 

 months that ploughing was exceedingly difficult. Then in November about 4 inches of rain fell, 

 and 2 inches in December. After that the season was comparatively dry, only about half an inch falling 

 in January ; and some of the hottest weather in the history of the State was experienced towards the 

 middle and end of February. Otherwise the conditions were extremely mild. (Figs. 42, 43, 44, 45, 46.) 



A severe storm raged in the district just the night before my arrival, littering the orchards with 

 windfalls. This will account for the large proportion of windfalls in the experimental plots about 

 one-fifth of the whole. But as they were gathered immediately before any Pit could develop, the results 

 were not affected in any way. 



The soil of the orchard is variable, but samples were taken for analysis from the portion in 

 which the experiments were conducted. The rubble was on the ridge, and the loamy soil adjoining. 

 The subsoil was almost yellow sand with an average depth of 18 inches, with friable yellow clay 

 beneath ; while the soil varied in depth from 9 inches to a foot. 



