1908.] Summary of Agricultural Experiments. 70T 



Mafiuring of Maize {Essex Education Com. Field Expts., 1906).- — This 

 experiment was instituted in view of the importance of this forage crop as a 

 source of green feed, during the late summer months when fodder is scarce,, 

 and was carried out on five farms. The dry period which was experienced 

 just when the plants needed moisture resulted in such poor growths on the 

 light soils at two centres that no estimate of the yields was made. On the 

 heavier soils of the three remaining centres, the rainfall was insufficient to 

 allow the manures to produce their full effect, and in consequence little or 

 no reliance can be placed upon the results. It is considered, however, that 

 the following conclusions can be drawn with safety : — (i) That a supple- 

 mentary dressing of 1 cwt. nitrate of soda to 12 tons of dung will increase 

 the crop ; (2) that superphospate and potash will not materially increase the 

 yield ; (3) that in a dry season leaving out farmyard manure and increasing, 

 the nitrate will not give such good results as a dressing of dung and an 

 artificial supplement. 



ROTATION EXPERIMENTS. 

 Rotation Experiments (Jnl. Roy. Agric. Soc., Vol. 68, 1907;. — The new 

 scheme of these experiments came into operation in 1904 on the upper half 

 of Stackyard Field and in 1907 on the lower half. On the upper half the 

 object sought to be obtained is to ascertain the difference in manurial value 

 obtained by the consumption of, in the one case, decorticated cotton cake, 

 and in the other, maize meal, by sheep feeding off roots on the land ; on. 

 the lower half the object is to ascertain the difference in manurial value 

 between these two foods when they are fed to bullocks in feeding-boxes and 

 subsequently carted out to the field as farmyard manure and used for 

 growing a root crop. The former plan illustrates the circumstances of a 

 light land farmer who feeds his roots off on the land with cake or corn, the 

 latter illustrates the case of a farmer who feeds cake or corn to his bullocks- 

 in the yards and carts out the dung on to his land. It is hoped in this way 

 to attack the problem of the unexhausted manurial value of purchased foods 

 according as they are fed on the land by sheep or given to stock at the 

 homestead. The crops grown in 1907 are reported on in the above 

 publication. 



Rotation Experiments (Camb. Univ. Dept. of Agric., Guide to Experi- 

 ments, 1907). — The results of a number of rotation experiments are given :. 

 (1) At Burgoyne's P^arm an experiment, to show what manures are required 

 and when they should be applied, was carried out on 6 half-acre plots and in 

 duplicate, from 1903 to 1906. The rotation was mangolds, oats, seeds and 

 wheat. The complete results and the estimated profit from manuring are 

 given. (2) Two rotation experiments deal with the effects produced on 

 crops by oilcakes when fed to fattening cattle. So far no marked results- 

 can be traced to the cake residues. (3) Two instructive experiments are in 

 progress on Fen soil in West Norfolk. The scheme of manuring is very 

 simple ; all the manures are applied to the first crop (potatoes), and the 

 interest centres chiefly in the action of the manure residues. (4) Three 

 experiments in Cambridgeshire and West Suffolk, which have been brought 

 to a conclusion, are summarized and the profit or loss from manuring is 

 given. The rotation was swedes, barley, hay, and oats or wheat. 



Experiments are also in progress at the East Suffolk County Council 

 Experimental Stations at Bramford and Saxmundham. At Bramford the 

 crops are arranged in a four-course rotation and treated with various artificial) 

 manures. The average results are given for five years. At Saxmundham in 



