1909.] Summary of Agricultural Experiments. 489 



different counties is irregular and unsystematic, one of the 

 least satisfactory features of agricultural education in Eng- 

 land at the present time being that no sufficient means exist, 

 either of helping counties which are poor financially or of 

 stimulating backward local authorities. 



The report concludes with a consideration of the grounds 

 on which State aid may fairly be claimed for agricultural 

 education. It is pointed out that the direct effect of any 

 improvement in English agriculture would be a cheapening 

 in the cost of production, and although in some cases the 

 benefit would be taken by the agricultural classes, in others 

 it would be handed on to the consumer. Mr. Middleton 

 therefore urges the provision of the means necessary to obtain 

 for agriculture a larger share of attention from scientific men 

 in the expectation that the resources of the country will be 

 developed to the benefit of all classes of the community. 



SUMMARY OF AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS. 

 Miscellaneous Experiments.* 



Wheat after er Seeds " (Univ. of Leeds. Bull. No. 74).— This ex- 

 periment was intended to compare the crop after a clover mixture and 

 after a clover and rye-grass mixture. It was found difficult, however, 

 to arrange the experiment under precisely similar conditions, and the 

 difference in the yields obtained was insignificant. 



Wheat after Roots (Lanes. C.C., Agric. Dept. Bull. No. 11).— 

 Where wheat is grown in rotation after roots, it is not usual for any 

 assistance in the form of artificial manures to be given, and this 

 experiment was arranged in 1906 at four centres to test the effect 

 of such manuring. The results showed that artificial manures can be 

 economically employed to manure wheat following a root crop, but 

 that it is not necessary to employ a " complete " mixture to obtain a 

 good yield, though a " complete " mixture, according to the average 

 figures of the experiment, gave slightly the largest crop and the highest 

 estimated profit. A mixture of artificial manures containing only 

 phosphates and potash, however, should not be used unless it is intended 

 to supplement the mixture later by a further top dressing of a nitro- 

 genous manure. 



In this experiment none of the dressings of artificial manures em- 



* The summaries of Agricultural Experiments which have appeared in the present 

 volume have been as follows : — Experiments with Cereals, April, p. 65, and May, 

 p. 150 ; Experiments with Root Crops, June, p. 239, and July, p. 311 ; Experiments 

 with Potatoes, July, p. 313, and August, p. 402; Miscellaneous Manurial Experi- 

 ments, August, p. 405. 



The present issue contains some additional experiments, the reports of which 

 were in several cases received too late to be included in the earlier summaries. 



M M 



