348 REpPoRT OF THE FARM SUPERINTENDENT OF THE 
Of the oats on these plats, M and N were rather in advance of 
the better ripened portions of the south part of the field, but 
showed some green in the straw, indicating that they were some 
days later than on the north side of the field, though the kernels 
seemed;to be nearly as firm as on the ripest plats. 
The crop on plats L and O was rather later than that on the 
south part of the field. This discussion is not intended to include 
the two green rows which were drilled in so much later. 
Thus nitrogenous manure had the effect to increase the size and 
green color of straw, and to lengthen the growing period, or, in 
other words to retard ripening; while phosphoric acid had its 
effect in hastening the ripening of the crop. 
Neither muck, potash nor gypsum had any noticeable effect on 
the appearance of the crop. 
A perfectly fair comparison of all the plats can hardly be 
made, as they were not all sown on the same date, and because 
of the two late sown rows on the four plats L, M,N and O. Buton 
comparing the means of the unmanured plats E and J with HE, J 
and O, the latter mean differs from the former only by slight 
differences which are corrective in their tendency, and using the 
mean of the three is also more favorable to the manured plats in 
an economic comparison. In this comparison straw is reckoned 
at 30 cents per 100 pounds, and oats 33% cents per bushel, or 
$1.04 per 100 pounds, and screenings at half the price of oats. 
Not one of the manured plats produced enough more than the 
mean of the three unmanured plats to pay for the fertilizer used. 
By raising the value of oats to 40 cents per bushel the phos- 
phoric acid on H paid for itself, but there was still a deficit of 
9 cents for the manure on O, the next best plat, both in relative 
value of crop to cost and in total amount of crop. The greatest 
increase of crop—from plat I— returned only .6 of the cost of 
the fertilizer. Although the oats were very dry at the time of 
threshing, only one plat yielded grain of standard weight, which 
is in harmony with the observations of previous years that the 
oats raised on this farm have been light. The ratio of straw to 
grain was 127 to 100. 
