Report  on  the  Field  and  Feeding  Experiments  at  Woburn.  221 
It  was  carted,  stacked,  and  thatched  in  good  condition  on  the 
30th  of  August,  1882. 
It  was  threshed  out  in  the  field  on  the  15th  of  November,  and 
the  straw  weighed  at  the  time  of  threshing  ; the  corn  was  weighed 
and  measured  on  the  23rd  of  November,  when  the  results 
embodied  in  Table  II.  (p.  222)  were  obtained. 
It  will  be  noticed  that  in  1882  the  plots  which  in  the  prece- 
ding five  years  had  been  annually  manured  with  a heavy  dressing 
of  mineral  manures  and  a large  dose  of  ammonia-salts, — or  with 
minerals,  and  as  much  as  550  lbs.  of  nitrate  of  soda, — per  acre, 
were  divided  in  two,  as  were  also  the  two  dunged  plots  10  and  11. 
On  one-half  of  the  plots  8 and  9 minerals  alone  were  used 
last  season,  and  the  other  halves  were  dressed  with  minerals  and 
ammonia-salts  (plot  8b),  and  with  minerals  and  nitrate  of  soda 
(plot  9b). 
On  plots  10a  and  11a  no  dung  was  used,  and  the  plots  10b 
and  11b  were  manured  with  the  usual  quantity  of  rotten  dung. 
The  barley-crop  on  the  whole  yielded  rather  better  than  in 
the  preceding  season,  and  produced  a superior  quality  of  corn, 
weighing  from  2 to  4 lbs.  more  per  bushel  than  the  barley  grown 
in  the  same  plots  in  1881. 
Last  season  appears  to  have  been  more  favourable  on  the 
Woburn  Experimental  fields  to  the  growth  of  barley  than  to 
that  of  wheat. 
One  of  the  unmanured  plots  (plot  1),  which  had  grown  five 
crops  of  dressed  barley  in  succession  before,  produced  33'2  bushels 
of  dressed  corn,  weighing  nearly  52  lbs.  per  bushel,  and  20  cwts. 
1 qr.  and  11  lbs.  of  clean  straw. 
The  second  unmanured  plot  (plot  7),  which  generally  yields 
not  so  well  as  plot  1,  gave  27^  bushels  of  dressed  barley,  weigh- 
ing only  50'2  lbs.  per  bushel,  and  19  cwts.  3 qrs.  and  17  lbs. 
of  straw.  Plot  1 appears  to  be  naturally  more  productive  than 
plot  7. 
The  average  produce  of  the  two  unmanured  plots  1 and  7 in 
round  numbers  was  30  bushels  of  dressed  corn  and  20  cwts.  of 
straw. 
Nitrate  of  soda  without  minerals  (plot  3)  gave  an  increase, 
over  the  average  yield  of  the  two  unmanured  plots,  of  nearly  20 
bushels  of  barley,  and  114  cwts.  of  straw. 
Ammonia-salts  alone  (plot  2)  also  largely  increased  the 
barley-crop ; but  the  increase  was  5 bushels  of  dressed  corn  less 
than  in  the  adjoining  plot  3,  which  was  top-dressed  in  spring 
with  a quantity  of  nitrate  of  soda,  containing  as  much  nitrogen 
as  the  ammonia-salts,  with  which  plot  2 was  top-dressed  in 
spring  on  the  same  day  on  which  the  nitrate  was  sown  on 
plot  3. 
