56 BITTER PIT INVESTIGATION. 



TABLE XXIV. THIRD YEAR'S MANURIAL EXPERIMENTS WITH CLEOPATRA, ETC. continued. 



CHECK PLOTS No MANURE. 



Clean. Pitted. Per cent. Pitted. 



Plot Per 



No. Manure. Tree. 



14 

 15 

 16 



Total . 1200 794 164 183 59 20 



SUMMARY OF MANURIAL EXPERIMENTS 1914-15. 



Plot No. Clean Fruit. Pitted Fruit. Per cent. Pitted. Remarks. 



Ibs. Ibs. 



1 380 509 57 Fruit of very good size and healthy leaf. 



2 657 326 33 Fruit of good size, and leaf firm and healthy. 



3 673 463 41 Fruit slightly larger than 2, and growth better, 



with more foliage. 



4 G06 257 30 Fruit of good size, and leaf healthy. 



5 456 185 29 Fruit very small, and leaf poor. 



6 380 555 59 Fruit fairly large, and foliage bright and 



abundant. 



7 218 120 35 Fruit small and firm, and foliage dark green. 



8 741 456 38 Fruit large, and foliage good and bright. 



9 817 604 42 Fruit a good commercial sample, but of small 



size ; foliage good and ample. 



10 798 493 38 Fruit and foliage similar to 9. 



11 266 92 26 Fruit very small, foliage poor, and colour 



medium. 



12 427 111 21 Fruit average size, and foliage healthy. 



13 308 139 31 Fruit small, and foliage rather poor. 



General average . . 40 



Confining our attention to this season's results, when the fertilizers will have had time to 

 act, the effect upon the yield and the amount of Pit will be considered. 



As regards the yield, the average per tree in the manured plots is 106 Ibs., while it is only 50 

 Ibs., or less than half, in the unmanured plots. 



The heaviest yield was obtained from plot 9, with superphosphate and sulphate of ammonia ; 

 and it is interesting to notice that the same plot had the heaviest yield for the three years in succession. 

 The lightest yield was obtained from plot 7, with fine unburnt limestone alone ; and when green 

 manuring with peas was added, there was not much improvement. 



The check plots, where no manure was used, had all very light crops, and the bulk of the fruit 

 was undersized and unmarketable. As regards the amount of Pit, it may be stated at once that it 

 was least in the unmanured plots, but here it must be remembered that this was to be expected, 

 since the trees bore a light crop with fruit of small size. 



The highest percentage of Pit occurred in plots 6 and 1, with 59 and 57 percent, respectively. 

 In both cases the essential elements of phosphoric acid, potash, and nitrogen were present, the nitrogen 

 having been supplied to plot 6 by means of green manuring with peas last season. 



The least amount of Pit was in plot 12, where green manuring alone was carried out last season. 



