Continuous Growing of Wheat. 193 
plot. Plot 2a was, indeed, almost a blank, and plot 2b (the 
same treatment, but with 2 tons of lime per acre in December, 
1897), showed up in marked contrast to it. 
On March 11, 1904, the applications of farmyard manure 
and rape dust were given, the former having, as usual, been 
made during the winter in feeding boxes by bullocks consuming 
definite quantities of decorticated cotton cake and meal, 
together with roots, hay, straw, and chaff, the manure then 
being taken out, stored in a heap, and covered with earth. 
The nitrogenous top-dressings of ammonia salts (sulphate of 
ammonia and muriate of ammonia in equal quantities) and 
of nitrate of soda were put on in two different applications, 
the first halves of the heavier dressings (plots 8b and 9b) on 
May 3, and the second halves, as well as the single dressings to 
plots 2, 3, 5, and 6, on May 25. 
By June 20 the wheat began to come into ear, 10b being the 
earliest plot. “ Rust ” appeared early on this plot, as also on 
lib, 3, and 6. Plot 5 (minerals and ammonia salts) showed a 
marked failing this year. The wheat was in bloom by July 1. 
There was hardly any “smut” ( ustilago ) in the corn, but it was 
most present where nitrogenous top-dressings had been used. 
Tiie harvest was an early one, for the plots were all cut by 
August 11, carted on the 19th, and stacked. The different lots 
were threshed on November 1, the produce weighed, and the 
corn subsequently valued by an expert. Table I, on page 194, 
gives the results obtained. 
The wheat crop, as was the case all over the country, was 
an exceedingly poor one, falling below that of 1903 (a very wet 
season), and being even less than that of 1901 (an exceptionally 
dry year). The comparison of these years shows how very 
marked is the influence of season, and how little the manures 
applied will effect the yield independently of favourable 
weather. In 1901 the rainfall for the year was 20 in. only, in 
1903 it was 34^ in., and it was in 1904, 22 in. The unmanured 
produce was only 7'4 bushels, against 7*7 bushels in 1901, and 
10*2 bushels in 1903. The highest produce in 1904 was 17 
bushels (plot 9b), in 1901, 25 bushels, and in 1903, 34 bushels. 
Straw also was exceptionally short, owing to the drought, the 
highest return being 16 cwt. only. Of the two unmanured 
plots, number 7 must be taken as representative, for both plots 
1 and 4 are becoming more and more affected by the nearness 
of trees. Ammonia salts have shown still more strongly the 
injury that is being done to the land by their continual use, 
and on plots 2a and 8a there was no crop worth weighing, and 
on 5 very little. The plots treated with nitrate of soda are also 
beginning to show that there is deterioration of the land going 
on, for on plot 3 the produce is beloAV the unmanured yield. 
VOL. 66. O 
