The Efeet of Climate and Weather on the Soil. 17 
Rainfall 
Yield of grain, bushels per acre 
Oct. — March 
Ammonium salts applied 
Difference in 
favour of 
spring dressing 
In Autumn 
In spring 
*Dry winters . 
x Wet „ 
11-73 
16-73 
31-8 
27-5 
32-5 
32-5 
0-7 
5-0 
Total produce (grain and straw) lb. per acre. 
Dry winters . 
11-73 
5,631 
5,829 
196 
Wet , , 
16-73 
4,932 
6,004 
1,072 
-no <ao T >a? >nW-df i i lter8 W < F e those P rece <3ing the harvests of 1889, '90, ’91, ’93, ’98 1901, 
W U3, 05, 06, 09, for which the results are averaged here ; the wet winters were those 
preceding the harvests of 1892, ’94, ’95, ’96, ’97, ’99, 1900, ’07, ’08, ’10, ’ll. 
When the ammonium salts are put on in spring it makes 
little difference on these plots whether the winter has been wet 
or dry because so much is supplied that the plant has more 
than it needs. But when the application is in autumn the case 
is very different ; a wet winter now causes considerable loss. 
In Hoos Field there are two adjacent plots unmanured for 
many years each of which is fallowed one year and cropped 
with wheat the next. On Broadbalk Field the plots are cropped 
every year. As the fields lie next to one another the experi- 
ments^ enable a reasonable comparison to be set up between a 
crop grown after a preceding crop, and one taken after a 
summer fallow. When there is no crop on the ground, 
f.e., during the fallow, the nitrates accumulate and the various 
desirable changes already mentioned have a maximum chance 
of going on. If the nitrates remain in the soil till the 
following spring they increase the yield of wheat over and 
above what is obtained under continuous cropping. But if the 
winter is wet much of the advantage is lost, and the difference 
between the plots becomes considerably less. On an average 
after dry winters the crop preceded by a fallow is 38 per cent, 
higher than that preceded by another crop, but after wet 
winters it is only 16 per cent, higher : — 
Rainfall 
Oct. — March 
Yield of grain, bushels per acre 
After 
previous 
crop 
After fallow 
Difference in 
favour 
of fallow 
Dry winters 
11-73 
12-4 
16-2 
3-8 
Wet „ . ' . 
16-73 
11-7 
12-8 
1-1 
Total produce (grain and straw) 
lb. per acre. 
Dry winters 
11-73 
1,898 
2,632 
734 
Wet „ 
16-73 
1,795 
2,085 
290 
