The  Woburn  Field  Experiments,  1909.  369 
could  be  cut.  Continuous  bad  weather  delayed  the  stacking, 
and  the  sheaves  had  to  be  frequently  turned  over  to  dry  them. 
Carting  and  stacking  could  not  be  done  until  September  21, 
and  it  was  December  22  before  the  threshing  could  be  begun. 
The  produce  is  given  in  Table  II.,  page  367. 
The  crop,  though  in  bad  condition  and  the  straw  iri  many 
cases  much  rotted,  was,  on  the  whole,  good  in  weight,  and  the 
highest  yield — from  farmyard  manure — was  45^  bushels  of 
corn  with  37  cwt.  of  straw  per  acre,  and  thus  above  the  average 
of  the  previous  ten-year  periods  and  greatly  in  excess  of  the 
crop  of  1908. 
The  unmanured  produce  was  8 bushels  per  acre,  and  that 
of  minerals  only  (plot  4)  slightly  less. 
Nitrate  of  soda  alone  gave  a poor  yield,  the  extra  1 cwt.  per 
acre  used  on  plot  3a  showing  little  more  than  an  increase  in 
straw.  The  better  produce  of  plot  6 (nearly  13  bushels  more) 
proves  the  advantage  of  using  minerals  along  with  nitrate  of 
soda.  On  the  other  hand,  the  omission  of  nitrate  of  soda  for 
a year  (plot  9b)  did  not  give  the  great  lowering  of  crop  noticed 
in  the  case  of  the  wheat. 
With  sulphate  of  ammonia,  results  much  on  former  lines 
were  obtained.  On  plots  2a,  5a,  8a,  and  8b  there  was  hardly 
any  crop  to  speak  of.  The  light  dressing  of  5 cwt.  per  acre  of 
lime  gave  a small  crop  of  6^  bushels,  and,  though  the  influence 
of  the  lime  on  plot  2b  (last  applied  in  1897)  is  going  off,  12 
bushels  per  acre  were  still  obtained,  and  on  plot  5b  as  much  as 
27|  bushels.  The  further  application  of  2 tons  per  acre  of  lime 
on  plot  2bb,  and  of  1 ton  in  1905  on  plot  5aa,  gave  respectively 
30'6  bushels  and  28‘8  bushels,  while  27’8  bushels  were  yielded 
on  plot  8aa,  though  lime  had  not  gone  on  since  1897. 
As  between  the  use  of  superphosphate  (plot  10a)  and  of 
sulphate  of  potash  (plot  11a)  a marked  benefit  attended  the 
latter,  the  increase  being  as  much  as  14^  bushels. 
Rape  dust  (plot  10b)  did  only  fairly,  and  was  much  below 
the  farmyard  manure  yield. 
The  grain  was  valued  on  January  19,  1910,  on  a basis  of 
29s.  per  quarter  of  448  lb.  It  was  all  found  to  be  of  very 
poor  quality,  and  only  one  sample  (plot  11b,  farmyard  manure) 
came  anywhere  near  a malting  standard.  The  fact  that  feed- 
ing stuffs  generally  were  dear,  caused  a higher  value  to  be  put 
on  the  grain  than  would  otherwise  have  been  the  case.  Even 
the  second  best  samples  had  bad  corns  in  them,  and  were  of 
no  use  for  malting.  Those  coming  lower  down  in  the  scale 
were  badly  weathered,  and  in  some  cases  had  much  mouldy 
and  rotten  corn.  It  is  noticeable  that  farmyard  manure  gave 
by  no  means  a high  amount  of  “ tail  ” corn,  while  the  weight 
per  bushel  was  quite  good  also. 
VOL.  70.  B B 
