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VIII. — Report  on  the  Field  and  Feeding  Experiments  conducted  at 
Woburn  on  behalf  of  the  Royal  Agricultural  Society  of  England, 
during  the  Year  1882.  By  Dr.  Augustus  Voelcker,  F.R.S., 
Consulting  Chemist  to  the  Royal  Agricultural  Society. 
One  of  the  chief  troubles  in  successfully  growing  wheat  or 
barley  for  experimental  purposes  for  a number  of  years  in  suc- 
cession on  the  same  field  is  to  keep  the  land  practically  free 
from  weeds.  In  order  to  accomplish  this,  it  is  desirable  to 
plough  the  land  shallow  directly  after  harvest,  to  drag-harrow 
it  after  some  time,  to  fork  out  any  bits  of  couch  which  may  have 
been  left  in  the  land,  and  to  wage  a continuous  war  against 
surface  weeds  by  hoeing  and  hand- weeding,  until  the  wheat 
or  barley  is  sufficiently  advanced  in  growth  to  smother  the 
weeds. 
By  dint  of  much  labour,  entailing  a good  deal  of  expense,  the 
experimental  plots  on  Stackyard-field  have  been  kept  scrupu- 
lously clean. 
As  in  former  years,  Browick  wheat,  at  the  rate  of  9 pecks  per 
acre,  was  dibbled  in  on  the  18th,  19th,  and  20th  of  October, 
1881,  at  a cost  of  9s.  per  acre.  The  land  was  in  good  condi- 
tion, and  the  seed-corn  went  in  well. 
The  dung  required  for  the  experiments  on  the  continuous 
growth  of  wheat  was  made  by  four  bullocks.  They  were  put 
into  the  feeding-boxes  on  the  21st  of  November,  1881,  and  taken 
out  on  the  13th  of  December.  In  the  course  of  three  weeks 
they  consumed  2-|  cwts.  of  decorticated  cotton-cake,  4 cwts.  of 
maize-meal,  30  cwts.  of  sliced  white  turnips,  and  5 cwts.  of 
wheat-straw  chaff.  They  were  supplied  with  6J  cwts.  of  wheat- 
straw  as  litter,  cut  into  chaff  of  about  2 to  3 inches  in  length. 
The  following  were  the  weights  of  the  bullocks  when  put  up, 
and  after  three  weeks,  when  they  had  finished  the  food  required 
for  the  production  of  the  required  quality  of  dung:  — 
When  put  up, 
on  Nov.  21, 
1881. 
When  removed, 
on  Dec.  13, 
1881. 
Gain  from 
Nov.  21  to 
Dec.  13 
(three  weeks). 
cwts.  qrs.  lbs. 
cwts.  qrs.  lbs. 
cwts.  qrs.  lbs. 
Bullock  No.  1 weighed  
9 0 1 
9 1 11 
0 1 10 
„ No.  2 „ 
9 2 10 
9 3 13 
0 1 3 
55  No.  3 „ 
9 0 4 
9 2 8 
0 2 4 
No.  4 „ 
9 1 13 
10  0 24 
0 3 11 
Total  weight  of  4 Bullocks  . . 
37  0 0 
39  0 0 
2 0 0 
The*  bullock  No.  4 did  remarkably  well,  increased  much 
VOL.  XIX. — S.  S.  P 
