191 2.] Summary of Agricultural Experiments. 859 



increase in the yield of corn and straw from the individual plant as 

 compared with the yield from ordinary methods of cultivation, 

 especially in the case of winter barley. There was no noticeable differ- 

 ence in the increases brought about by each of these three methods 

 (viz., thin seeding, transplanting - , and earthing up) separately. 



As regards yield per acre, it may be said that earthing up and 

 transplanting decreased the yield per acre, but increased the size and 

 weight of individual grains. 



It is concluded that transplanting cannot be undertaken by practical 

 agriculturists on account of the large amount of labour necessary. 

 Earthing up is perhaps practicable on a large scale, but leads to no 

 higher yields than ordinary methods. 



Experiments were carried out at the same time in regard to another 

 system of cultivation which has also attracted attention in Germany. 

 This is known as the Zehetmayr system, and appears to consist in 

 drilling the seed in a special way. Briefly no very great practical 

 advantages were found to result from this system in these experiments 

 over and above those obtained from good ordinary cultivation. 



Varieties of Oats (Bedfordshire C.C. Agric. Educ. Com., Rept. on 

 Wheat and Oat Plots, 191 1). — The following varieties of oats gave the 

 heaviest crops : — 



Five years previous 





to iqn. 

 Bush. 



TQII. 



Bush. 



White Horse (Webb) 



... 48 



46 



Waverley (Garton)... 



44 



. 43 



Abundance (Garton) 



43 



5o 



Newmarket (Webb) 



41 



5i 



Record (Garton) 



...Not grown 



50 



Newmarket and Abundance, which were better than the others in 

 quality and weight, are considered to be well adapted for a general 

 crop. The proportion of grain and husk was ascertained, and a high 

 percentage of grain was found usually to accompany high weight. 



Live Stock and Feeding Stuffs. 



Cattle Feeding (Jour, of the Dept. of Agric. and Tech. Instruction 

 for Ireland, October, 191 1). — Imported feeding stuffs were compared 

 with home-grown foods for cattle. The experiment was carried out 

 at two centres ; at the first, two lots each of seven cattle were used for 

 ten weeks, and at the second centre two lots each of ten cattle were 

 tested for eight weeks. One lot at each centre was fed on a mixture 

 of imported foods consisting oT one part (by weight) of maize and 

 two parts of undecorticated cotton cake, and the second lot was given 

 a mixture of home-grown foods consisting of one part of wheatmeal, 

 one and a half parts of barley meal, and two parts of ground oats. At 

 the beginning of the experiment the animals received 3 lb. per head 

 daily of the concentrated foods; this was later increased to 4 lb., and 

 finally to 5 lb. The cattle were also put out to pasture. 



The total live weight increase was 27 cwt. from the 17 animals 

 fed on imported foods, and 24! cwt. from the 17 animals fed on home- 

 grown foods. Reckoning the increases at 33s. per cwt., the profit 



3 N 2 



